{{Short description|Realistic artificially generated media}} {{multiple issues| {{very long|date=November 2024}} {{AI-generated|date=November 2025}} }} {{Use British English|date=May 2026}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} [[File:Dictators - Kim Jong-Un by RepresentUs.webm|thumb|upright=1.2|A video deepfake of Kim Jong Un created in 2020 by a nonpartisan advocacy group RepresentUs]] {{Artificial intelligence|Applications}}
'''Deepfakes''' (a portmanteau of {{gloss|deep learning}} and {{gloss|fake}}<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |last=Wahab |first=Abdul |date=1 October 2025 |title=Futures of Deepfake and society: Myths, metaphors, and future implications for a trustworthy digital future |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001632872500134X |journal=Futures |volume=173 |article-number=103672 |doi=10.1016/j.futures.2025.103672 |issn=0016-3287|url-access=subscription }}</ref>) are images, videos, or audio that have been edited or generated using artificial intelligence, AI-based tools or audio-video editing software. They may depict real or fictional people and are considered a form of synthetic media, that is media that is usually created by artificial intelligence systems by combining various media elements into a new media artifact.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kalpokas |first1=Ignas |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-93802-4 |title=Deepfakes |last2=Kalpokiene |first2=Julija |publisher=Springer Cham |year=2022 |isbn=978-3-030-93801-7 |pages=1–2 |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-93802-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Berry |first=David M. |date=19 March 2025 |title=Synthetic media and computational capitalism: towards a critical theory of artificial intelligence |journal=AI & Society |volume=40 |issue=7 |pages=5257–5269 |language=en |doi=10.1007/s00146-025-02265-2 |issn=1435-5655|doi-access=free |arxiv=2503.18976 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Maher |first1=Sean William |title=Deepfakes |journal=Encyclopedia |date=2 April 2026 |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=80 |doi=10.3390/encyclopedia6040080 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
While the act of creating fake content is not new, deepfakes uniquely leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Juefei-Xu |first1=Felix |last2=Wang |first2=Run |last3=Huang |first3=Yihao |last4=Guo |first4=Qing |last5=Ma |first5=Lei |last6=Liu |first6=Yang |date=1 July 2022 |title=Countering Malicious DeepFakes: Survey, Battleground, and Horizon |journal=International Journal of Computer Vision |volume=130 |issue=7 |pages=1678–1734 |doi=10.1007/s11263-022-01606-8 |issn=1573-1405 |pmc=9066404 |pmid=35528632 }}</ref><ref name="Kietzmann-2020">{{Cite journal|last1=Kietzmann|first1=J.|last2=Lee|first2=L. W.|last3=McCarthy|first3=I. P.|last4=Kietzmann|first4=T. C.|title=Deepfakes: Trick or treat?|journal=Business Horizons|volume=63|issue=2|pages=135–146|doi=10.1016/j.bushor.2019.11.006|year=2020|s2cid=213818098|url=https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/38737/1/1247050_Lee.pdf|access-date=30 December 2022|archive-date=29 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229113358/https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/38737/1/1247050_Lee.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Waldrop">{{cite journal |last1=Waldrop |first1=M. Mitchell |title=Synthetic media: The real trouble with deepfakes |journal=Knowable Magazine |publisher=Annual Reviews |date=16 March 2020 |doi=10.1146/knowable-031320-1 |doi-access=free |url=https://knowablemagazine.org/article/technology/2020/synthetic-media-real-trouble-deepfakes |access-date=19 December 2022 |archive-date=19 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221119155941/https://knowablemagazine.org/article/technology/2020/synthetic-media-real-trouble-deepfakes |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> including facial recognition algorithms and artificial neural networks such as variational autoencoders and generative adversarial networks (GANs).<ref name="Kietzmann-2020" /><ref name="Schwartz">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/12/deep-fakes-fake-news-truth|title=You thought fake news was bad? Deep fakes are where truth goes to die|last1=Schwartz|first1=Oscar|date=12 November 2018|work=The Guardian|access-date=14 November 2018|archive-date=16 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616230351/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/12/deep-fakes-fake-news-truth|url-status=live}}</ref> In turn, the field of image forensics has worked to develop techniques to detect manipulated images.<ref name="Farid">{{cite journal |last1=Farid |first1=Hany |title=Image Forensics |journal=Annual Review of Vision Science |date=15 September 2019 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=549–573 |doi=10.1146/annurev-vision-091718-014827 |pmid=31525144 |s2cid=263558880 |url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-vision-091718-014827 |issn=2374-4642 |access-date=20 September 2023 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610171713/https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-vision-091718-014827 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Deepfakes have garnered widespread attention for their potential use in creating child sexual abuse material, celebrity pornographic videos, revenge porn, fake news, hoaxes, bullying, and financial fraud.<ref name="HighSnobiety2018">{{Cite news |last=Banks |first=Alec |date=20 February 2018 |title=What Are Deepfakes & Why the Future of Porn is Terrifying |work=Highsnobiety |url=https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/what-are-deepfakes-ai-porn/ |url-status=live |access-date=20 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714032914/https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/what-are-deepfakes-ai-porn/ |archive-date=14 July 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Christian |first=Jon |title=Experts fear face swapping tech could start an international showdown |url=https://theoutline.com/post/3179/deepfake-videos-are-freaking-experts-out |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116140157/https://theoutline.com/post/3179/deepfake-videos-are-freaking-experts-out |archive-date=16 January 2020 |access-date=28 February 2018 |website=The Outline }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Roose |first=Kevin |date=4 March 2018 |title=Here Come the Fake Videos, Too |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/technology/fake-videos-deepfakes.html |url-status=live |url-access=limited |access-date=24 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190618203019/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/technology/fake-videos-deepfakes.html |archive-date=18 June 2019 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{cite arXiv|title=Adversarial Learning of Deepfakes in Accounting |eprint = 1910.03810 |last1=Schreyer |first1=Marco |last2=Sattarov |first2=Timur |last3=Reimer |first3=Bernd |last4=Borth |first4=Damian |date=October 2019|class=cs.LG }}</ref>
Academics have raised concerns about the potential for deepfakes to promote disinformation and hate speech,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dangers of Deepfake: What to Watch For {{!}} University IT |url=https://uit.stanford.edu/news/dangers-deepfake-what-watch |access-date=11 August 2025 |website=uit.stanford.edu}}</ref> as well as interfere with elections.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Savat |first=Sara |date=19 August 2024 |title=Political deepfake videos no more deceptive than other fake news, research finds |url=https://source.washu.edu/2024/08/political-deepfake-videos-no-more-deceptive-than-other-fake-news-research-finds/ |access-date=11 August 2025 |website=The Source |language=en-US}}</ref> In response, the information technology industry and governments have proposed recommendations and methods to detect and mitigate their use. Academic research has also delved deeper into the factors driving deepfake engagement online as well as potential countermeasures to malicious application of deepfakes.
From traditional entertainment to gaming, deepfake technology has evolved to be increasingly convincing<ref>{{Cite book |last=Caramancion |first=Kevin Matthe |title=2021 IEEE International IOT, Electronics and Mechatronics Conference (IEMTRONICS) |chapter=The Demographic Profile Most at Risk of being Disinformed |date=21 April 2021 |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/iemtronics52119.2021.9422597 |pages=1–7 |publisher=IEEE |doi=10.1109/iemtronics52119.2021.9422597 |isbn=978-1-6654-4067-7 |s2cid=234499888 |access-date=9 June 2023 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610170119/https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9422597/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and available to the public, allowing for the disruption of the entertainment and media industries.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Lalla |first1=Vejay |last2=Mitrani |first2=Adine |last3=Harned |first3=Zach |title=Artificial Intelligence: Deepfakes in the Entertainment Industry |url=https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2022/02/article_0003.html |access-date=8 November 2022 |website=World Intellectual Property Organization |archive-date=8 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221108121107/https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2022/02/article_0003.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
== History == Photo manipulation was developed in the 19th century and soon applied to motion pictures. Technology steadily improved during the 20th century, and more quickly with the advent of digital video.
Deepfake technology has been developed by researchers at academic institutions beginning in the 1990s, and later by amateurs in online communities.<ref name="Harwell-2019">{{Cite news |last=Harwell |first=Drew |date=12 June 2019 |title=Top AI researchers race to detect 'deepfake' videos: 'We are outgunned' |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/12/top-ai-researchers-race-detect-deepfake-videos-we-are-outgunned/ |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |access-date=8 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031051258/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/12/top-ai-researchers-race-detect-deepfake-videos-we-are-outgunned/ |archive-date=31 October 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/thanks-ai-future-fake-news-may-be-easily-faked-video-ncna845726|title=Thanks to AI, the future of 'fake news' is being pioneered in homemade porn|last=Sanchez|first=Julian|date=8 February 2018|website=NBC News|access-date=8 November 2019|archive-date=9 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109084341/https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/thanks-ai-future-fake-news-may-be-easily-faked-video-ncna845726|url-status=live}}</ref> More recently, the methods have been adopted by industry.<ref name="Porter-2019">{{Cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/2/20844338/zao-deepfake-app-movie-tv-show-face-replace-privacy-policy-concerns|title=Another convincing deepfake app goes viral prompting immediate privacy backlash|last=Porter|first=Jon|date=2 September 2019|website=The Verge|access-date=8 November 2019|archive-date=3 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903202859/https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/2/20844338/zao-deepfake-app-movie-tv-show-face-replace-privacy-policy-concerns|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":8" />
The development of generative adversarial networks (GANs) in the mid-2010s represented a key technical turning point in the evolution of deepfakes. GANs allowed for the creation of highly realistic fake images and videos by training competing neural networks, achieving a much improved visual fidelity over previous methods of creating the content using rules or by using autoencoders, and formed the basis for modern deepfake methods.<ref name="Masood-2023"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Keith D. |first1=Foote |title=A Brief History of Generative AI |url=https://www.dataversity.net/articles/a-brief-history-of-generative-ai |website=Dataversity}}</ref>
=== Academic research === Academic research related to deepfakes is split between the field of computer vision, a sub-field of computer science,<ref name="Harwell-2019" /> which develops techniques for creating and identifying deepfakes, and humanities and social science approaches that study the social, ethical, aesthetic implications as well as journalistic and informational implications of deepfakes.<ref name="Vatreš 2021 561–576">{{Cite journal|last=Vatreš|first=Amina|date=2021|title=Deepfake Phenomenon: An advanced form of fake news and its implications on reliable journalism|journal=Društvene i humanističke studije|volume=16|issue=3|pages=561–576|doi=10.51558/2490-3647.2021.6.3.561|doi-access=free}}</ref> As deepfakes have risen in prominence in popularity with innovations provided by AI tools, significant research has gone into detection methods and defining the factors driving engagement with deepfakes on the internet.<ref name="Andrew H 2022">{{Cite journal |last1=Rana |first1=Md Shohel |last2=Nobi |first2=Mohammad Nur |last3=Murali |first3=Beddhu |last4=Sung |first4=Andrew H. |date=2022 |title=Deepfake Detection: A Systematic Literature Review |journal=IEEE Access |volume=10 |pages=25494–25513 |doi=10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3154404 |issn=2169-3536|doi-access=free |bibcode=2022IEEEA..1025494R }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Sudarsan |first1=Ananya |last2=Chua |first2=Hui Na |last3=Jasser |first3=Muhammed Basheer |last4=Wong |first4=Richard T.K. |chapter=Deepfake Characterization, Propagation, and Detection in Social Media - A Synthesis Review |date=1 March 2024 |title=2024 20th IEEE International Colloquium on Signal Processing & Its Applications (CSPA) |publisher=IEEE |pages=219–224 |doi=10.1109/CSPA60979.2024.10525373 |isbn=979-8-3503-8231-0}}</ref> Deepfakes have been shown to appear on social media platforms and other parts of the internet for purposes ranging from entertainment and education related to deepfakes to misinformation to elicit strong reactions.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Sudarsan |first1=Ananya |last2=Chua |first2=Hui Na |last3=Jasser |first3=Muhammed Basheer |last4=Wong |first4=Richard T.K. |chapter=Deepfake Characterization, Propagation, and Detection in Social Media - A Synthesis Review |date=1 March 2024 |title=2024 20th IEEE International Colloquium on Signal Processing & Its Applications (CSPA) |publisher=IEEE |pages=219–224 |doi=10.1109/CSPA60979.2024.10525373 |isbn=979-8-3503-8231-0}}</ref> There are gaps in research related to the propagation of deepfakes on social media. Negativity and emotional response are the primary driving factors for users sharing deepfakes.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Sudarsan |first1=Ananya |last2=Chua |first2=Hui Na |last3=Jasser |first3=Muhammed Basheer |last4=Wong |first4=Richard T.K. |chapter=Deepfake Characterization, Propagation, and Detection in Social Media - A Synthesis Review |date=1 March 2024 |title=2024 20th IEEE International Colloquium on Signal Processing & Its Applications (CSPA) |publisher=IEEE |pages=219–224 |doi=10.1109/CSPA60979.2024.10525373 |isbn=979-8-3503-8231-0}}</ref>
=== Social science and humanities approaches to deepfakes === In cinema studies, deepfakes illustrate how "the human face is emerging as a central object of ambivalence in the digital age".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bode |first1=Lisa |last2=Lees |first2=Dominic |last3=Golding |first3=Dan |date=29 July 2021 |title=The Digital Face and Deepfakes on Screen |journal=Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=849–854 |doi=10.1177/13548565211034044 |issn=1354-8565 |s2cid=237402465|doi-access=free }}</ref> Video artists have used deepfakes to "playfully rewrite film history by retrofitting canonical cinema with new star performers".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Take it down act adult content creators platforms |url=https://copyrightshark.com/take-it-down-act-adult-content-creators-platforms/ |access-date=20 March 2026 |website=copyrightshark.com |date=March 2026 }}</ref><ref name="Holliday-2021">{{Cite journal |last=Holliday |first=Christopher |date=26 July 2021 |title=Rewriting the stars: Surface tensions and gender troubles in the online media production of digital deepfakes |journal=Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=899–918 |doi=10.1177/13548565211029412 |issn=1354-8565 |s2cid=237402548|doi-access=free }}</ref> Film scholar Christopher Holliday analyses how altering the gender and race of performers in familiar movie scenes destabilizes gender classifications and categories.<ref name="Holliday-2021" /> The concept of "queering" deepfakes is also discussed in Oliver M. Gingrich's discussion of media artworks that use deepfakes to reframe gender,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gingrich|first=Oliver M.|date=5 July 2021|title=GENDER*UCK: Reframing gender & media art|journal=Proceedings of EVA London 2021 (EVA 2021)|series=Electronic Workshops in Computing |doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2021.25|s2cid=236918199 |doi-access=free}}</ref> including British artist Jake Elwes' ''Zizi: Queering the Dataset'', an artwork that uses deepfakes of drag queens to intentionally play with gender. The aesthetic potentials of deepfakes are also beginning to be explored. Theatre historian John Fletcher notes that early demonstrations of deepfakes are presented as performances, and situates these in the context of theater, discussing "some of the more troubling paradigm shifts" that deepfakes represent as a performance genre.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fletcher|first=John|date=2018|title=Deepfakes, Artificial Intelligence, and Some Kind of Dystopia: The New Faces of Online Post-Fact Performance|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/715916|journal=Theatre Journal|volume=70|issue=4|pages=455–471|doi=10.1353/tj.2018.0097|s2cid=191988083 |issn=1086-332X|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
While most English-language academic studies of deepfakes focus on the Western anxieties about disinformation and pornography, digital anthropologist Gabriele de Seta has analyzed the Chinese reception of deepfakes, which are known as ''huanlian'', which translates to "changing faces". The Chinese term does not contain the "fake" of the English deepfake, and de Seta argues that this cultural context may explain why the Chinese response has centered on practical regulatory measures to "fraud risks, image rights, economic profit, and ethical imbalances".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=de Seta|first=Gabriele|date=30 July 2021|title=Huanlian, or changing faces: Deepfakes on Chinese digital media platforms|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13548565211030185|journal=Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies|volume=27|issue=4|pages=935–953|doi=10.1177/13548565211030185|hdl=11250/2833613|s2cid=237402447|issn=1354-8565|hdl-access=free|access-date=9 February 2022|archive-date=10 June 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610171616/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13548565211030185|url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Computer science research on deepfakes === A landmark early project was the "Video Rewrite" program, published in 1997. The program modified existing video footage of a person speaking to depict that person mouthing the words from a different audio track.<ref name="Bregler-1997">{{Cite book |last1=Bregler |first1=Christoph |last2=Covell |first2=Michele |last3=Slaney |first3=Malcolm |title=Proceedings of the 24th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques – SIGGRAPH '97 |chapter=Video Rewrite: Driving visual speech with audio |date=1997 |chapter-url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/258734.258880 |volume=24 |pages=353–360 |doi=10.1145/258734.258880 |isbn=0-89791-896-7 |s2cid=2341707 |access-date=10 July 2023 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610171622/https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/258734.258880 |url-status=live }}</ref> It was the first system to fully automate this kind of facial reanimation, and it did so using machine learning techniques to make connections between the sounds produced by a video's subject and the shape of the subject's face.<ref name="Bregler-1997" />
Contemporary academic projects have focused on creating more realistic videos and improving deepfake techniques.<ref name="Suwajanakorn-2017">{{Cite journal |last1=Suwajanakorn |first1=Supasorn |last2=Seitz |first2=Steven M. |last3=Kemelmacher-Shlizerman |first3=Ira |date=July 2017 |title=Synthesizing Obama: Learning Lip Sync from Audio |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3072959.3073640 |journal=ACM Trans. Graph. |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=95:1–95:13 |doi=10.1145/3072959.3073640 |s2cid=207586187 |access-date=10 July 2023 |archive-date=19 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519100353/https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3072959.3073640 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Thies-2016">{{Cite book |last1=Thies |first1=Justus |last2=Zollhöfer |first2=Michael |last3=Stamminger |first3=Marc |last4=Theobalt |first4=Christian |last5=Nießner |first5=Matthias |title=2016 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) |chapter=Face2Face: Real-Time Face Capture and Reenactment of RGB Videos |date=June 2016 |publisher=IEEE |pages=2387–2395 |arxiv=2007.14808 |doi=10.1109/CVPR.2016.262 |isbn=978-1-4673-8851-1 |s2cid=206593693}}</ref> The "Synthesizing Obama" program, published in 2017, modifies video footage of former president Barack Obama to depict him mouthing the words contained in a separate audio track.<ref name="Suwajanakorn-2017" /> The project lists as a main research contribution to its photorealistic technique for synthesizing mouth shapes from audio.<ref name="Suwajanakorn-2017" /> The "Face2Face" program, published in 2016, modifies video footage of a person's face to depict them mimicking another person's facial expressions.<ref name="Thies-2016" /> The project highlights its primary research contribution as the development of the first method for re-enacting facial expressions in real time using a camera that does not capture depth, enabling the technique to work with common consumer cameras.
Researchers have also shown that deepfakes are expanding into other domains such as medical imagery.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mirsky |first1=Yisroel |url=https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity19/presentation/mirsky |title=CT-GAN: Malicious Tampering of 3D Medical Imagery using Deep Learning |last2=Mahler |first2=Tom |last3=Shelef |first3=Ilan |last4=Elovici |first4=Yuval |date=2019 |isbn=978-1-939133-06-9 |pages=461–478 |arxiv=1901.03597 |access-date=18 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620075305/https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity19/presentation/mirsky |archive-date=20 June 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> In this work, it was shown how an attacker can automatically inject or remove lung cancer in a patient's 3D CT scan. The result was so convincing that it fooled three radiologists and a state-of-the-art lung cancer detection AI. To demonstrate the threat, the authors successfully performed the attack on a hospital in a White hat penetration test.<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Neill |first=Patrick Howell |date=3 April 2019 |title=Researchers Demonstrate Malware That Can Trick Doctors Into Misdiagnosing Cancer |url=https://gizmodo.com/researchers-demonstrate-malware-that-can-trick-doctors-1833786672 |access-date=3 June 2022 |website=Gizmodo |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172118/https://gizmodo.com/researchers-demonstrate-malware-that-can-trick-doctors-1833786672 |url-status=live }}</ref>
A survey of deepfakes, published in May 2020, provides a timeline of how the creation and detection of deepfakes have advanced over the last few years.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mirsky|first1=Yisroel|last2=Lee|first2=Wenke|date=12 May 2020|title=The Creation and Detection of Deepfakes: A Survey|journal=ACM Computing Surveys|doi=10.1145/3425780|arxiv=2004.11138|s2cid=216080410}}</ref> The survey identifies that researchers have been focusing on resolving the following challenges of deepfake creation: * Generalization. High-quality deepfakes are often achieved by training on hours of footage of the target. This challenge is to minimize the amount of training data and the time to train the model required to produce quality images and to enable the execution of trained models on ''new'' identities (unseen during training). * Paired Training. Training a supervised model can produce high-quality results, but requires data pairing. This is the process of finding examples of inputs and their desired outputs for the model to learn from. Data pairing is laborious and impractical when training on multiple identities and facial behaviors. Some solutions include self-supervised training (using frames from the same video), the use of unpaired networks such as Cycle-GAN, or the manipulation of network embeddings. * Identity leakage. This is where the identity of the driver (i.e., the actor controlling the face in a reenactment) is partially transferred to the generated face. Some solutions proposed include attention mechanisms, few-shot learning, disentanglement, boundary conversions, and skip connections. * Occlusions. When part of the face is obstructed with a hand, hair, glasses, or any other item then artifacts can occur. A common occlusion is a closed mouth which hides the inside of the mouth and the teeth. Some solutions include image segmentation during training and in-painting. * Temporal coherence. In videos containing deepfakes, artifacts such as flickering and jitter can occur because the network has no context of the preceding frames. Some researchers provide this context or use novel temporal coherence losses to help improve realism. As the technology improves, the interference is diminishing.
Overall, deepfakes are expected to have several implications in media and society, media production, media representations, media audiences, gender, law, and regulation, and politics.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Karnouskos |first=Stamatis |title=Artificial Intelligence in Digital Media: The Era of Deepfakes |journal=IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society |date=2020 |volume=1 |issue=3 |page=138 |doi=10.1109/TTS.2020.3001312 |bibcode=2020ITTS....1..138K |s2cid=221716206 |url=https://papers.duckdns.org/files/2020_Deepfakes.pdf |access-date=9 July 2020 |archive-date=14 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714032923/https://papers.duckdns.org/files/2020_Deepfakes.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== Amateur development === The term ''deepfake'' originated in late 2017 from a Reddit user named "deepfakes".<ref name="Cole-2018b">{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/reddit-fake-porn-app-daisy-ridley/|title=We Are Truly Fucked: Everyone Is Making AI-Generated Fake Porn Now|last=Cole|first=Samantha|date=24 January 2018|website=Vice|access-date=4 May 2019|archive-date=7 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190907194524/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bjye8a/reddit-fake-porn-app-daisy-ridley|url-status=live}}</ref> He, along with other members of Reddit's "r/deepfakes", shared deepfakes they created; many videos involved celebrities' faces swapped onto the bodies of actors in pornographic videos,<ref name="Cole-2018b" /> while non-pornographic content included many videos with actor Nicolas Cage's face swapped into various movies.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://mashable.com/2018/01/31/nicolas-cage-face-swapping-deepfakes/|title=People Are Using Face-Swapping Tech to Add Nicolas Cage to Random Movies and What Is 2018|last=Haysom|first=Sam|date=31 January 2018|website=Mashable|access-date=4 April 2019|archive-date=24 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190724221500/https://mashable.com/2018/01/31/nicolas-cage-face-swapping-deepfakes/|url-status=live}}</ref>
After this first introduction, amateur development grew at a quick rate because of the presence of open-source software and tutorials on the Internet. The freely available tools like FakeApp, FaceSwap, and DeepFaceLab allowed users who did not have any formal education in computer science to assemble deepfake videos with consumer hardware.<ref name="Lyu-2020">{{cite book |last1=Lyu |first1=Siwei |chapter=Deepfake Detection: Current Challenges and Next Steps |title=2020 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia & Expo Workshops (ICMEW) |date=July 2020 |page=1 |doi=10.1109/ICMEW46912.2020.9105991|arxiv=2003.09234 |isbn=978-1-7281-1485-9 }}</ref><ref name="Masood-2023">{{cite journal |last1=Masood |first1=Momina |last2=Nawaz |first2=Mariam |last3=Malik |first3=Khalid Mahmood |last4=Javed |first4=Ali |last5=Irtaza |first5=Aun |last6=Malik |first6=Hafiz |title=Deepfakes generation and detection: state-of-the-art, open challenges, countermeasures, and way forward |journal=Applied Intelligence |date=February 2023 |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=2–5 |doi=10.1007/s10489-022-03766-z}}</ref> Online forums such as Reddit, GitHub and YouTube were important to the distribution of software, instructions, and sample content, and helped to spread and perfect amateur creation of deepfakes quicker.<ref name="Masood-2023" />
Other online communities continue to share pornography on platforms that have not banned deepfake pornography.<ref name="Hathaway-2018">{{cite web|url=https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/deepfake-sites-reddit-ban/|title=Here's where 'deepfakes,' the new fake celebrity porn, went after the Reddit ban|last=Hathaway|first=Jay|date=8 February 2018|website=The Daily Dot|access-date=22 December 2018|archive-date=6 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190706092234/https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/deepfake-sites-reddit-ban/|url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Commercial development === In January 2018, a proprietary desktop application called "FakeApp" was launched.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/what-is-a-deepfake-and-how-are-they-made/|title=What is a Deepfake and How Are They Made?|date=23 May 2019|website=Online Tech Tips|access-date=20 December 2025|archive-date=8 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191108161241/https://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/what-is-a-deepfake-and-how-are-they-made/|url-status=dead}}</ref> This app allows users to easily create and share videos with their faces swapped with each other.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/11/16992986/fakeapp-deepfakes-ai-face-swapping|title=I'm using AI to face-swap Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, and I'm really bad at it|last=Robertson|first=Adi|date=11 February 2018|website=The Verge|access-date=8 November 2019|archive-date=24 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180324223908/https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/11/16992986/fakeapp-deepfakes-ai-face-swapping|url-status=live}}</ref> As of 2019, "FakeApp" had been largely replaced by open-source alternatives such as "Faceswap", command line-based "DeepFaceLab", and web-based apps such as DeepfakesWeb.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Deepfakes web {{!}} The best online faceswap app|url=https://deepfakesweb.com/|access-date=21 February 2021|website=Deepfakes web|archive-date=14 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714032902/https://deepfakesweb.com/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Faceswap-2019">{{cite web|url=https://faceswap.dev|title=Faceswap is the leading free and Open Source multi-platform Deepfakes software.|date=15 October 2019|via=WordPress|access-date=14 July 2021|archive-date=31 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210531200049/https://faceswap.dev/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Github-2022">{{cite web|url=https://github.com/iperov/DeepFaceLab|title=DeepFaceLab is a tool that utilizes machine learning to replace faces in videos. Includes prebuilt ready to work standalone Windows 7,8,10 binary (look readme.md).: iperov/DeepFaceLab|date=19 June 2019|via=GitHub|access-date=6 March 2019|archive-date=9 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509223348/https://github.com/iperov/DeepFaceLab|url-status=live}}</ref>
Larger companies started to use deepfakes.<ref name="Porter-2019" /> Corporate training videos can be created using deepfaked avatars and their voices, for example Synthesia, which uses deepfake technology with avatars to create personalized videos.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Chandler|first=Simon|title=Why Deepfakes Are A Net Positive For Humanity|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonchandler/2020/03/09/why-deepfakes-are-a-net-positive-for-humanity/|access-date=3 November 2020|website=Forbes|archive-date=16 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116050152/https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonchandler/2020/03/09/why-deepfakes-are-a-net-positive-for-humanity/|url-status=live}}</ref> The mobile app Momo created the application Zao which allows users to superimpose their face on television and movie clips with a single picture.<ref name="Porter-2019" /> As of 2019 the Japanese AI company DataGrid made a full body deepfake that could create a person from scratch.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90407145/youve-been-warned-full-body-deepfakes-are-the-next-step-in-ai-based-human-mimicry|title=You've been warned: Full body deepfakes are the next step in AI-based human mimicry|last=Pangburn|first=D. J.|date=21 September 2019|website=Fast Company|access-date=8 November 2019|archive-date=8 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191108161240/https://www.fastcompany.com/90407145/youve-been-warned-full-body-deepfakes-are-the-next-step-in-ai-based-human-mimicry|url-status=live}}</ref>
By 2020, audio deepfakes and AI software capable of cloning human voices based on a few seconds of speech exist.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/29/21080553/ftc-deepfakes-audio-cloning-joe-rogan-phone-scams|title=FTC says the tech behind audio deepfakes is getting better|first=Kim|last=Lyons|date=29 January 2020|website=The Verge|access-date=8 February 2020|archive-date=30 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200130141130/https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/29/21080553/ftc-deepfakes-audio-cloning-joe-rogan-phone-scams|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://google.github.io/tacotron/publications/speaker_adaptation/|title=Audio samples from "Transfer Learning from Speaker Verification to Multispeaker Text-To-Speech Synthesis"|website=google.github.io|access-date=8 February 2020|archive-date=14 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114031835/https://google.github.io/tacotron/publications/speaker_adaptation/|url-status=live}}</ref> Tools for deepfake detection also emerge.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2019 |title=FaceForensics++: Learning to Detect Manipulated Facial Images |url=https://www.niessnerlab.org/projects/roessler2019faceforensicspp.html |journal=IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-12-11 |title=Facebook AI Launches Its Deepfake Detection Challenge |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/facebook-ai-launches-its-deepfake-detection-challenge |access-date=2026-05-06 |website=IEEE Spectrum |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ai.googleblog.com/2019/09/contributing-data-to-deepfake-detection.html|title=Contributing Data to Deepfake Detection Research|date=24 September 2019|access-date=8 February 2020|archive-date=5 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205104836/https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/09/contributing-data-to-deepfake-detection.html|url-status=live|website=Google Research}}</ref> A mobile deepfake app, Impressions, was launched in March 2020. It was the first app for the creation of celebrity deepfake videos from mobile phones.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailydot.com/debug/impressions-deepfake-app///|title=You can now deepfake yourself into a celebrity with just a few clicks|last=Thalen|first=Mikael|website=daily dot|access-date=3 April 2020|archive-date=6 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200406221457/https://www.dailydot.com/debug/impressions-deepfake-app/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://kool1079.com/fun-or-fear-deepfake-app-puts-celebrity-faces-in-your-selfies//|title=Fun or Fear: Deepfake App Puts Celebrity Faces In Your Selfies|last=Matthews|first=Zane|website=Kool1079|date=6 March 2020|access-date=6 March 2020|archive-date=24 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200324141612/https://kool1079.com/fun-or-fear-deepfake-app-puts-celebrity-faces-in-your-selfies/|url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Resurrection === Deepfake technology's ability to fabricate messages and actions of others can extend to the deceased, such as in grief therapy that allows seeming communication with a deceased loved one.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Bloomsbury Academic| isbn = 978-1-5099-7495-5| last = van der Sloot| first = Bart| title = Regulating the Synthetic Society : Generative AI, Legal Questions, and Societal Challenges| access-date = 2025-11-21| date = 2024| url = https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/135010}}</ref> In October 2020, Kim Kardashian posted a video featuring a hologram of her late father, Robert Kardashian, created by the company Kaleida, which used a combination of performance, motion tracking, SFX, VFX and DeepFake technologies to create the illusion.<ref>{{Cite news|date=31 October 2020|title=Kanye West, Kim Kardashian and her dad: Should we make holograms of the dead?|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54753214|access-date=11 November 2020|archive-date=15 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115150249/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54753214|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=30 October 2020|title=Kanye West Gave Kim Kardashian a Hologram of Her Father for Her Birthday|url=https://www.themodems.com/post/kanye-west-gave-kim-kardashian-a-hologram-of-her-father-for-her-birthday|access-date=11 November 2020|website=themodems|archive-date=11 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111121855/https://www.themodems.com/post/kanye-west-gave-kim-kardashian-a-hologram-of-her-father-for-her-birthday|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 2020, a deepfake video of Joaquin Oliver, a victim of the Parkland shooting, was created as part of a gun safety campaign. Oliver's parents partnered with nonprofit Change the Ref and McCann Health to produce a video in which Oliver to encourage people to support gun safety legislation and politicians who back do so as well.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2 October 2020|title=Parkland victim Joaquin Oliver comes back to life in heartbreaking plea to voters|url=https://adage.com/article/advertising/parkland-victim-joaquin-oliver-comes-back-life-heartbreaking-plea-voters/2285166|access-date=11 November 2020|website=adage.com|archive-date=11 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111061000/https://adage.com/article/advertising/parkland-victim-joaquin-oliver-comes-back-life-heartbreaking-plea-voters/2285166|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 2022, a deepfake video of Elvis Presley was used on the program ''America's Got Talent 17''.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last1=Bowenbank |first1=Starr |date=14 September 2022 |title=Simon Cowell Duets With Elvis in Metaphysic's Latest Deepfake 'AGT' Performance: Watch |url=https://www.billboard.com/culture/tv-film/simon-cowell-duet-elvis-deepfake-agt-performance-1235138799/ |access-date=8 November 2022 |magazine=Billboard |archive-date=15 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220915081446/https://www.billboard.com/culture/tv-film/simon-cowell-duet-elvis-deepfake-agt-performance-1235138799/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
== Techniques == Deepfakes rely on a type of neural network called an autoencoder.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.alanzucconi.com/2018/03/14/understanding-the-technology-behind-deepfakes/|title=Understanding the Technology Behind DeepFakes|last=Zucconi|first=Alan|date=14 March 2018|website=Alan Zucconi|access-date=8 November 2019|archive-date=1 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101164537/https://www.alanzucconi.com/2018/03/14/understanding-the-technology-behind-deepfakes/|url-status=live}}</ref> These consist of an encoder, which reduces an image to a lower dimensional latent space, and a decoder, which reconstructs the image from the latent representation.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 May 2022 |title=What is a Deepfake? |url=https://blog.synthesys.io/what-is-deepfake/ |access-date=17 May 2022 |website=Blog - Synthesys |archive-date=26 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626181456/https://blog.synthesys.io/what-is-deepfake/ }}</ref> Deepfakes utilize this architecture by having a universal encoder which encodes a person in to the latent space.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}} The latent representation contains key features about their facial features and body posture. This can then be decoded with a model trained specifically for the target. This means the target's detailed information will be superimposed on the underlying facial and body features of the original video, represented in the latent space.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}
A popular upgrade to this architecture attaches a generative adversarial network to the decoder. A GAN trains a generator, in this case the decoder, and a discriminator in an adversarial relationship. The first network, known as the generator, attempts to craft fabricated images, while the second network, the discriminator, distinguishes between real and fake images using a legitimate data set to guide its judgment.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ayata |first1=Ozan |title=Artificial Realities: Mitigations against Deepfakes |url=https://www.cigionline.org/static/documents/DPH-paper-Ayata.pdf |publisher=Centre for International Governance Innovation |access-date=4 February 2026}}</ref> This causes the generator to create images that mimic reality extremely well as any defects would be caught by the discriminator.<ref name="Wired-1059">{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/story/these-new-tricks-can-outsmart-deepfake-videosfor-now/|title=These New Tricks Can Outsmart Deepfake Videos—for Now|magazine=Wired|access-date=9 November 2019|issn=1059-1028|archive-date=3 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003055035/https://www.wired.com/story/these-new-tricks-can-outsmart-deepfake-videosfor-now/|url-status=live}}</ref> Both algorithms improve constantly in a zero sum game. This makes deepfakes difficult to combat as they are constantly evolving; any time a defect is determined, it can be corrected.<ref name="Wired-1059" />
==Applications== ===Acting=== Digital clones of professional actors have appeared in films before, and progress in deepfake technology is expected to further the accessibility and effectiveness of such clones.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jul/03/in-the-age-of-deepfakes-could-virtual-actors-put-humans-out-of-business|title=In the age of deepfakes, could virtual actors put humans out of business?|last=Kemp|first=Luke|date=8 July 2019|work=The Guardian|access-date=20 October 2019|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=20 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020223601/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jul/03/in-the-age-of-deepfakes-could-virtual-actors-put-humans-out-of-business|url-status=live}}</ref> The use of AI technology was a major issue in the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, as new techniques enabled the capability of generating and storing a digital likeness to use in place of actors.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Verma |first1=Pranshu |title=Digital clones made by AI tech could make Hollywood extras obsolete |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/19/ai-actors-fear-sag-strike-hollywood/ |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=4 January 2024 |date=21 July 2023 |archive-date=20 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720224000/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/19/ai-actors-fear-sag-strike-hollywood/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
Disney has improved their visual effects using high-resolution deepfake face swapping technology.<ref name="High-2020">{{Cite web|title=High-Resolution Neural Face Swapping for Visual Effects {{!}} Disney Research Studios|url=https://studios.disneyresearch.com/2020/06/29/high-resolution-neural-face-swapping-for-visual-effects/|access-date=7 October 2020|archive-date=27 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127101746/https://studios.disneyresearch.com/2020/06/29/high-resolution-neural-face-swapping-for-visual-effects/|url-status=live}}</ref> Disney improved their technology through progressive training programmed to identify facial expressions, implementing a face-swapping feature, and iterating in order to stabilize and refine the output.<ref name="High-2020" /> This high-resolution deepfake technology saves significant operational and production costs.<ref name="Naruniec-2020">{{Cite web|title=Disney's deepfake technology could be used in film and TV|url=https://blooloop.com/news/disney-deepfake-face-swap-technology/|access-date=7 October 2020|website=Blooloop|date=21 July 2020|archive-date=12 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112044743/https://blooloop.com/news/disney-deepfake-face-swap-technology/|url-status=live}}</ref> Disney's deepfake generation model can produce AI-generated media at a 1024 x 1024 resolution, as opposed to common models that produce media at a 256 x 256 resolution.<ref name="Naruniec-2020" /> The technology allows Disney to {{nowrap|de-age}} characters or revive deceased actors.<ref>{{Cite web|first=Jon A.|last=Lindley|date=2 July 2020|title=Disney Ventures Into Bringing Back 'Dead Actors' Through Facial Recognition|url=https://www.techtimes.com/articles/250776/20200702/disney-is-using-deepfakes-and-facial-recognition-to-bring-back-dead-actors.htm|access-date=7 October 2020|website=Tech Times|archive-date=14 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714032907/https://www.techtimes.com/articles/250776/20200702/disney-is-using-deepfakes-and-facial-recognition-to-bring-back-dead-actors.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Similar technology was initially used by fans to unofficially insert faces into existing media, such as overlaying Harrison Ford's young face onto Han Solo's face in ''Solo: A Star Wars Story''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/17/17989214/harrison-ford-solo-movie-deepfake-technology|title=Harrison Ford is the star of Solo: A Star Wars Story thanks to deepfake technology|last=Radulovic|first=Petrana|date=17 October 2018|website=Polygon|access-date=20 October 2019|archive-date=20 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020223601/https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/17/17989214/harrison-ford-solo-movie-deepfake-technology|url-status=live}}</ref> Disney used deepfakes for the characters of Princess Leia in ''Rogue One'' and Luke Skywalker in both ''The Mandalorian'' and ''The Book of Boba Fett.''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612241/how-acting-as-carrie-fishers-puppet-made-a-career-for-rogue-ones-princess-leia/|title=How acting as Carrie Fisher's puppet made a career for Rogue One's Princess Leia|last=Winick|first=Erin|website=MIT Technology Review|access-date=20 October 2019|archive-date=23 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191023063609/https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612241/how-acting-as-carrie-fishers-puppet-made-a-career-for-rogue-ones-princess-leia/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=10 February 2022 |title=Deepfake Luke Skywalker is another step down a ghoulish CGI path |url=https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/boba-fett-luke-skywalker |access-date=3 June 2022 |website=British GQ |archive-date=22 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522214428/https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/boba-fett-luke-skywalker |url-status=live }}</ref>
In the 2024 Indian Tamil science fiction action thriller ''The Greatest of All Time'', the teenage version of Vijay's character Jeevan is portrayed by Ayaz Khan. Vijay's teenage face was then attained by AI deepfake.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=8 September 2024 |title=Not Vijay, Here's Who Played the Younger Version of Him in The GOAT |url=https://english.tupaki.com/entertainment/vijay-younger-version-in-goat-1383681 |access-date=8 November 2024 |website=english.tupaki.com/ |language=en}}</ref> In May 2025, an AI-generated actress called Tilly Norwood was developed by the Dutch company Xicoia, a division of the existing production company Particle6 that was founded by actor and comedian Eline Van der Velden.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Constantine |first1=Megan |last2=Lim |first2=Audrey |last3=Glass |first3=Lia |last4=Webb |first4=Melanie |last5=Simpson |first5=Kyle |last6=Carrion |first6=Joey |last7=DeMoraes |first7=Isa |last8=Olatunde |first8=Timi |last9=Westerman |first9=Reagan |last10=Rybachek |first10=Anna |last11=Gunn |first11=Nicholas |title=The Student Movement Volume 110 Issue 5: At the Market for Cuisine and K-Pop |journal=The Student Movement V. 110 (2025-2026) |date=2025-10-24 |url=https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/sm-110/5/}}</ref>
===Art===
Deepfakes are also being used in education and media to create realistic videos and interactive content, which offer new ways to engage audiences.
In March 2018 the multidisciplinary artist Joseph Ayerle published the video artwork ''Un'emozione per sempre 2.0'' (English title: ''The Italian Game''). The artist worked with Deepfake technology to create an ''AI actor,'' a synthetic version of 80s movie star Ornella Muti, traveling in time from 1978 to 2018. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology referred this artwork in the study "Collective Wisdom".<ref>Katerina Cizek, William Uricchio, and Sarah Wolozin: Collective Wisdom | Massachusetts Institute of Technology [https://wip.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/collective-wisdom-part-6] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304015015/https://wip.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/collective-wisdom-part-6|date=4 March 2020}}</ref> The artist used Ornella Muti's time travel to explore generational reflections, while also investigating questions about the role of provocation in the world of art.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ansa.it/toscana/notizie/2017/11/03/ornella-muti-in-cortometraggio-a-firenze_36349008-ce7b-4c7e-8742-43e28f7225f4.html |title=ANSA {{!}} Ornella Muti in cortometraggio a Firenze |date=3 November 2017 |access-date=27 February 2020 |archive-date=27 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227220711/http://www.ansa.it/toscana/notizie/2017/11/03/ornella-muti-in-cortometraggio-a-firenze_36349008-ce7b-4c7e-8742-43e28f7225f4.html |url-status=live }}</ref> For the technical realization Ayerle used scenes of photo model Kendall Jenner. The program replaced Jenner's face by an AI calculated face of Ornella Muti. As a result, the AI actor has the face of the Italian actor Ornella Muti and the body of Kendall Jenner.
Deepfakes have been widely used in satire or to parody celebrities and politicians. The 2020 webseries ''Sassy Justice'', created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, heavily features the use of deepfaked public figures to satirize current events and raise awareness of deepfake technology.<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 October 2020 |title='South Park' creators launch new deepfake satire series 'Sassy Justice' |url=https://www.nme.com/news/tv/south-park-creators-launch-new-deepfake-satire-series-sassy-justice-2800657 |access-date=7 June 2022 |website=NME |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172120/https://www.nme.com/news/tv/south-park-creators-launch-new-deepfake-satire-series-sassy-justice-2800657 |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== Blackmail === Deepfakes can be used to generate blackmail materials that falsely incriminate a victim. A report by the American Congressional Research Service warned that deepfakes could be used to blackmail elected officials or those with access to classified information for espionage or influence purposes.<ref name=CRS1>{{cite report |first2=Laurie A. |last2=Harris |first1=Kelley M. |last1=Tayler |date=8 June 2021 |title=Deep Fakes and National Security |url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11333 |publisher=Congressional Research Service |page=1 |access-date=19 July 2021 |archive-date=14 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220614195611/https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11333 |url-status=live }}</ref>
When or if fakes cannot reliably be distinguished from genuine evidence, victims who are blackmailed over digital evidence might claim that true artifacts are fakes, thereby seeking plausible deniability by relying on an argument of indistinguishability between fake and genuine evidence. The hoped-for effect is to void credibility of certain existing blackmail materials, which, if they were the sole evidence retained by a blackmailer and could not be distinguished by a jury from fake evidence under this argument, could in theory erode loyalty to blackmailers and limit their control over the blackmailed. This phenomenon has been termed "blackmail inflation", since in theory it "devalues" authentic blackmail material.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cultstate.com/2020/05/24/Podcast-18--Blackmail-Inflation/|last1=Limberg|first1=Peter|title=Blackmail Inflation|website=CultState|date=24 May 2020|access-date=18 January 2021|archive-date=24 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124155722/https://cultstate.com/2020/05/24/Podcast-18--Blackmail-Inflation/|url-status=live}}</ref> It is possible to utilize commodity GPU hardware with a small software program to generate fake content intended to blackmail anyone for whom an adversary has ample training data.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://t.me/forKappy|title=For Kappy|website=Telegraph|date=24 May 2020|access-date=18 January 2021|archive-date=24 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124155641/https://t.me/forKappy|url-status=live}}</ref> However, even carefully manipulated fakes may still be detected.
The existence of efficient techniques for fabricating false evidence certainly suggests that any combination of video, audio, photographic or other generable evidence alone as the basis for conviction of a crime is by now a perilous and tenuous standard owing to the possibility of maliciously fabricated evidence, raising the importance of multiple firsthand witnesses to a crime, especially for more serious allegations.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Harwell |first1=Drew |title=How deepfake videos are used to spread disinformation and harass people |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/08/deepfakes-misinformation-harassment |access-date=13 August 2025 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=8 February 2023}}</ref>
=== Entertainment === thumb|A man and a child using a face swapping app in 2016, to switch their faces On 8 June 2022,<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 June 2022 |title=The AGT Judges Had Priceless Reactions to That Simon Cowell Singing Audition |url=https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/agt-2022-see-the-judges-reactions-to-simon-cowell-singing |access-date=29 August 2022 |website=NBC Insider Official Site |archive-date=29 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220829084747/https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/agt-2022-see-the-judges-reactions-to-simon-cowell-singing |url-status=live }}</ref> Daniel Emmet, a former AGT contestant, teamed up with the AI startup<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marr |first=Bernard |title=Can A Metaverse AI Win America's Got Talent? (And What That Means For The Industry) |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/08/30/can-a-metaverse-ai-win-americas-got-talent-and-what-that-means-for-the-industry/ |access-date=30 August 2022 |website=Forbes |archive-date=30 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830073329/https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/08/30/can-a-metaverse-ai-win-americas-got-talent-and-what-that-means-for-the-industry/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Morales |first=Jowi |date=10 June 2022 |title=Deepfakes Go Mainstream: How Metaphysic's AGT Entry Will Impact Entertainment |url=https://www.makeuseof.com/deepfakes-mainstream-agt-entry/ |access-date=29 August 2022 |website=MUO |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172124/https://www.makeuseof.com/deepfakes-mainstream-agt-entry/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Metaphysic AI, to create a hyperrealistic deepfake to make it appear as Simon Cowell. Cowell, notoriously known for severely critiquing contestants,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carter |first=Rebecca |date=1 June 2019 |title=BGT viewers slam Simon Cowell for 'rude' and 'nasty' remark to contestant |url=https://www.entertainmentdaily.co.uk/tv/bgt-viewers-slam-simon-cowell-for-rude-and-nasty-remark-to-contestant/ |access-date=31 August 2022 |website=Entertainment Daily |archive-date=31 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220831125322/https://www.entertainmentdaily.co.uk/tv/bgt-viewers-slam-simon-cowell-for-rude-and-nasty-remark-to-contestant/ |url-status=live }}</ref> was on stage interpreting "You're The Inspiration" by Chicago. Emmet sang on stage as an image of Simon Cowell emerged on the screen behind him in flawless synchronicity.<ref>{{Citation |title=Simon Cowell Sings on Stage?! Metaphysic Will Leave You Speechless {{!}} AGT 2022 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPU0WNUzsBo&ab_channel=America%27sGotTalent |access-date=29 August 2022 |archive-date=29 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220829084747/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPU0WNUzsBo&ab_channel=America%27sGotTalent |url-status=live }}</ref>
On 30 August 2022, Metaphysic AI had 'deep-fake' Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel and Terry Crews singing opera on stage.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Segarra |first=Edward |title='AGT' judges Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel get 'deepfake' treatment by AI act Metaphysic: Watch here |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/08/30/agt-simon-cowell-calls-ai-opera-best-act-metaphysic/7947094001/ |access-date=31 August 2022 |website=USA TODAY |archive-date=31 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220831053351/https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/08/30/agt-simon-cowell-calls-ai-opera-best-act-metaphysic/7947094001/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
On 13 September 2022, Metaphysic AI performed with a synthetic version of Elvis Presley for the finals of ''America's Got Talent''.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Bowenbank |first=Starr |date=14 September 2022 |title=Simon Cowell Duets With Elvis in Metaphysic's Latest Deepfake 'AGT' Performance: Watch |url=https://www.billboard.com/culture/tv-film/simon-cowell-duet-elvis-deepfake-agt-performance-1235138799/ |access-date=15 September 2022 |magazine=Billboard |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610170142/https://www.billboard.com/culture/tv-film/simon-cowell-duet-elvis-deepfake-agt-performance-1235138799/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
The MIT artificial intelligence project 15.ai has been used for content creation for multiple Internet fandoms, particularly on social media.<ref name="kotaku">{{cite web |url= https://kotaku.com/this-website-lets-you-make-glados-say-whatever-you-want-1846062835 |title= Website Lets You Make GLaDOS Say Whatever You Want |last= Zwiezen |first= Zack |date= 18 January 2021 |website= Kotaku |access-date= 18 January 2021 |quote= |archive-date= 17 January 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210117164748/https://kotaku.com/this-website-lets-you-make-glados-say-whatever-you-want-1846062835 |url-status= live }}</ref><ref name="gameinformer">{{cite magazine |url= https://www.gameinformer.com/gamer-culture/2021/01/18/make-portals-glados-and-other-beloved-characters-say-the-weirdest-things |title= Make Portal's GLaDOS And Other Beloved Characters Say The Weirdest Things With This App |last= Ruppert |first= Liana |date= 18 January 2021 |magazine= Game Informer |access-date= 18 January 2021 |quote= |archive-date= 18 January 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210118175543/https://www.gameinformer.com/gamer-culture/2021/01/18/make-portals-glados-and-other-beloved-characters-say-the-weirdest-things |url-status= live }}</ref><ref name="pcgamer">{{cite web |url= https://www.pcgamer.com/make-the-cast-of-tf2-recite-old-memes-with-this-ai-text-to-speech-tool |title= Make the cast of TF2 recite old memes with this AI text-to-speech tool |last= Clayton |first= Natalie |date= 19 January 2021 |website= PC Gamer |access-date= 19 January 2021 |quote= |archive-date= 19 January 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210119133726/https://www.pcgamer.com/make-the-cast-of-tf2-recite-old-memes-with-this-ai-text-to-speech-tool/ |url-status= live }}</ref>
In 2023 the bands ABBA and Kiss partnered with Industrial Light & Magic and Pophouse Entertainment to develop deepfake avatars capable of performing virtual concerts.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sherman |first1=Maria |title=Kiss say farewell to live touring, become first US band to go virtual and become digital avatars |url=https://apnews.com/article/kiss-digital-avatars-end-of-road-finale-37a8ae9905099343c7b41654b2344d0c |website=AP News |publisher=Associated Press |access-date=4 January 2024 |date=3 December 2023 |archive-date=1 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240101212029/https://apnews.com/article/kiss-digital-avatars-end-of-road-finale-37a8ae9905099343c7b41654b2344d0c |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== Fraud and scams === Fraudsters and scammers make use of deepfakes to trick people into fake investment schemes, financial fraud, cryptocurrencies, sending money, and following endorsements. The likenesses of celebrities and politicians have been used for large-scale scams, as well as those of private individuals, which are used in spearphishing attacks. According to the Better Business Bureau, deepfake scams are becoming more prevalent.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Cerullo |first=Megan |date=9 January 2024 |title=AI-generated ads using Taylor Swift's likeness dupe fans with fake Le Creuset giveaway |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/taylor-swift-le-creuset-ai-generated-ads/ |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=CBS News |archive-date=10 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110171010/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/taylor-swift-le-creuset-ai-generated-ads/ |url-status=live }}</ref> These scams are responsible for an estimated $12 billion in fraud losses globally.<ref name="Westfall">{{Cite web |last=Westfall |first=Chris |title=AI Deepfakes On The Rise Causing Billions In Fraud Losses |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/2024/11/29/ai-deepfakes-of-elon-musk-on-the-rise-causing-billions-in-fraud-losses/ |access-date=1 December 2024 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref> According to a recent report these numbers are expected to reach $40 Billion over the next three years.<ref name="Westfall"/>
Fake endorsements have misused the identities of celebrities like Taylor Swift,<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last1=Hsu |first1=Tiffany |last2=Lu |first2=Yiwen |date=9 January 2024 |title=No, That's Not Taylor Swift Peddling Le Creuset Cookware |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/technology/taylor-swift-le-creuset-ai-deepfake.html |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=The New York Times |page=B1}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Tom Hanks,<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=Derrick Bryson |date=2 October 2023 |title=Tom Hanks Warns of Dental Ad Using A.I. Version of Him |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/technology/tom-hanks-ai-dental-video.html |access-date=12 October 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610173649/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/technology/tom-hanks-ai-dental-video.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Oprah Winfrey,<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Johnson |first=Kirsten |date=11 December 2023 |title=Arizona woman falls victim to deepfake scam using celebrities on social media |url=https://www.abc15.com/news/let-joe-know/arizona-woman-falls-victim-to-deep-fake-scam-using-celebrities-on-social-media |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=ABC 15 Arizona |archive-date=10 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110171036/https://www.abc15.com/news/let-joe-know/arizona-woman-falls-victim-to-deep-fake-scam-using-celebrities-on-social-media |url-status=live }}</ref> and Elon Musk;<ref name=":4">{{Cite news |last=Kulundu |first=Mary |date=4 January 2024 |title=Deepfake videos of Elon Musk used in get-rich-quick scam |url=https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.349D4AG |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=Agence France-Presse |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172125/https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.349D4AG |url-status=live }}</ref> news anchors<ref>{{Cite news |last=Esmael |first=Lisbet |date=3 January 2024 |title=PH needs multifaceted approach vs 'deepfake' videos used to scam Pinoys |url=https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2024/1/3/cybersecurity-deepfake-technology.html |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=CNN Philippines |archive-date=10 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110171010/https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2024/1/3/cybersecurity-deepfake-technology.html }}</ref> like Gayle King<ref name=":2" /> and Sally Bundock;<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gerken |first=Tom |date=4 October 2023 |title=MrBeast and BBC stars used in deepfake scam videos |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66993651 |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=BBC News |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172122/https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66993651 |url-status=live }}</ref> and politicians like Lee Hsien Loong<ref name=":5">{{Cite news |last=Lim |first=Kimberly |date=29 December 2023 |title=Singapore PM Lee warns of 'very convincing' deepfakes 'spreading disinformation' after fake video of him emerges |url=https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3246701/singapore-pm-lee-warns-very-convincing-deepfakes-spreading-disinformation-after-fake-video-him |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240109054044/https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3246701/singapore-pm-lee-warns-very-convincing-deepfakes-spreading-disinformation-after-fake-video-him |archive-date=9 January 2024 |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=South China Morning Post}}</ref> and Jim Chalmers.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=Josh |date=30 November 2023 |title=Scammer paid Facebook 7c per view to circulate video of deepfake Jim Chalmers and Gina Rinehart |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/01/scammer-paid-facebook-7c-per-view-to-circulate-video-of-deepfake-jim-chalmers-and-gina-rinehart |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=The Guardian |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610170643/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/01/scammer-paid-facebook-7c-per-view-to-circulate-video-of-deepfake-jim-chalmers-and-gina-rinehart |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Palmer |first=Joseph Olbrycht |date=14 December 2023 |title=Deepfake of Australian treasury, central bank officials used to promote investment scam |url=https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.34766ZF |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=Agence France-Presse |archive-date=10 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110171036/https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.34766ZF |url-status=live }}</ref> Videos of them have appeared in online advertisements on YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok, who have policies against synthetic and manipulated media.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |last=Koebler |first=Jason |date=9 January 2024 |title=Deepfaked Celebrity Ads Promoting Medicare Scams Run Rampant on YouTube |url=https://www.404media.co/joe-rogan-taylor-swift-andrew-tate-ai-deepfake-youtube-medicare-ads/ |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=404 Media |archive-date=10 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110171016/https://www.404media.co/joe-rogan-taylor-swift-andrew-tate-ai-deepfake-youtube-medicare-ads/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":7">{{Cite news |last=Rosenblatt |first=Kalhan |date=3 October 2023 |title=MrBeast calls TikTok ad showing an AI version of him a 'scam' |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/mrbeast-ai-tiktok-ad-deepfake-rcna118596 |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=NBC News |archive-date=10 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110171010/https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/mrbeast-ai-tiktok-ad-deepfake-rcna118596 |url-status=live }}</ref> Ads running these videos are seen by millions of people. A single Medicare fraud campaign had been viewed more than 195 million times across thousands of videos.<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Koebler |first=Jason |date=25 January 2024 |title=YouTube Deletes 1,000 Videos of Celebrity AI Scam Ads |url=https://www.404media.co/youtube-deletes-1-000-videos-of-celebrity-ai-scam-ads/ |access-date=2 February 2024 |work=404 Media |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610171922/https://www.404media.co/youtube-deletes-1-000-videos-of-celebrity-ai-scam-ads/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Deepfakes have been used for: a fake giveaway of Le Creuset cookware for a "shipping fee" without receiving the products, except for hidden monthly charges;<ref name=":1" /> weight-loss gummies that charge significantly more than what was said;<ref name=":3" /> a fake iPhone giveaway;<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":7" /> and fraudulent get-rich-quick,<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Bucci |first=Nino |date=27 November 2023 |title=Dick Smith criticises Facebook after scammers circulate deepfake video ad |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/27/dick-smith-criticises-facebook-after-scammers-circulate-deepfake-video-ad |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=The Guardian |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610170606/https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/27/dick-smith-criticises-facebook-after-scammers-circulate-deepfake-video-ad |url-status=live }}</ref> investment,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lomas |first=Natasha |date=7 July 2023 |title=Martin Lewis warns over 'first' deepfake video scam ad circulating on Facebook |url=https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/07/martin-lewis-deepfake-scam-ad-facebook/ |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=TechCrunch |archive-date=10 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110171010/https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/07/martin-lewis-deepfake-scam-ad-facebook/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and cryptocurrency schemes.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Lopatto |first=Elizabeth |date=3 January 2024 |title=Fun new deepfake consequence: more convincing crypto scams |url=https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/3/24024262/youtube-twitter-x-crypto-solana-deepfake-scam |access-date=10 January 2024 |work=The Verge |archive-date=10 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110171010/https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/3/24024262/youtube-twitter-x-crypto-solana-deepfake-scam |url-status=live }}</ref>
Audio deepfakes have been used as part of social engineering scams, fooling people into thinking they are receiving instructions from a trusted individual.<ref name="Statt-2019">{{cite news |last=Statt |first=Nick |date=5 September 2019 |title=Thieves are now using AI deepfakes to trick companies into sending them money |url=https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/5/20851248/deepfakes-ai-fake-audio-phone-calls-thieves-trick-companies-stealing-money |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190915151504/https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/5/20851248/deepfakes-ai-fake-audio-phone-calls-thieves-trick-companies-stealing-money |archive-date=15 September 2019 |access-date=13 September 2019}}</ref> In 2019, a U.K.-based energy firm's CEO was scammed over the phone when he was ordered to transfer €220,000 into a Hungarian bank account by an individual who reportedly used audio deepfake technology to impersonate the voice of the firm's parent company's chief executive.<ref name="Damiani-2019">{{Cite web |last=Damiani |first=Jesse |title=A Voice Deepfake Was Used To Scam A CEO Out Of $243,000 |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2019/09/03/a-voice-deepfake-was-used-to-scam-a-ceo-out-of-243000/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190914192455/https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2019/09/03/a-voice-deepfake-was-used-to-scam-a-ceo-out-of-243000/ |archive-date=14 September 2019 |access-date=9 November 2019 |website=Forbes }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Deepfakes, explained |url=https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/deepfakes-explained |website=MIT Sloan |date=5 March 2024 |access-date=6 March 2024 |archive-date=5 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240305225527/https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/deepfakes-explained |url-status=live }}</ref> As of 2023, the combination advances in deepfake technology, which could clone an individual's voice from a recording of a few seconds to a minute, and new text generation tools, enabled automated impersonation scams, targeting victims using a convincing digital clone of a friend or relative.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schwartz |first1=Christopher |last2=Wright |first2=Matthew |date=17 March 2023 |title=Voice deepfakes are calling – here's what they are and how to avoid getting scammed |url=https://theconversation.com/voice-deepfakes-are-calling-heres-what-they-are-and-how-to-avoid-getting-scammed-201449 |website=The Conversation |access-date=4 January 2024 |archive-date=4 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104120519/https://theconversation.com/voice-deepfakes-are-calling-heres-what-they-are-and-how-to-avoid-getting-scammed-201449 |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== Politics === Deepfakes have been used to misrepresent well-known politicians in videos. * In February 2018, in separate videos, the face of the Argentine President Mauricio Macri had been replaced by the face of Adolf Hitler, and Angela Merkel's face has been replaced with Donald Trump's.<ref name="Bezmalinovic-2018">{{cite web|url=https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/leben/digital/wenn-merkel-ploetzlich-trumps-gesicht-traegt-die-gefaehrliche-manipulation-von-bildern-und-videos-132155720|title=Wenn Merkel plötzlich Trumps Gesicht trägt: die gefährliche Manipulation von Bildern und Videos|work=Aargauer Zeitung |date=3 February 2018|publisher=az Aargauer Zeitung|access-date=9 April 2018|archive-date=13 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413014251/https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/leben/digital/wenn-merkel-ploetzlich-trumps-gesicht-traegt-die-gefaehrliche-manipulation-von-bildern-und-videos-132155720|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://faktenfinder.tagesschau.de/hintergrund/deep-fakes-101.html|title=Deepfakes: Auf dem Weg in eine alternative Realität?|first=Patrick|last=Gensing|access-date=9 April 2018|archive-date=11 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011182211/http://faktenfinder.tagesschau.de/hintergrund/deep-fakes-101.html|url-status=live}}</ref> * In April 2018, Jordan Peele collaborated with BuzzFeed to create a deepfake of Barack Obama with Peele's voice; it served as a public service announcement to increase awareness of deepfakes.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Romano |first1=Aja |date=18 April 2018 |title=Jordan Peele's simulated Obama PSA is a double-edged warning against fake news |url=https://www.vox.com/2018/4/18/17252410/jordan-peele-obama-deepfake-buzzfeed |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190611142158/https://www.vox.com/2018/4/18/17252410/jordan-peele-obama-deepfake-buzzfeed |archive-date=11 June 2019 |access-date=10 September 2018 |website=Vox}}</ref> * In January 2019, Fox affiliate KCPQ aired a deepfake of Trump during his Oval Office address, mocking his appearance and skin color. The employee found responsible for the video was subsequently fired.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Swenson |first1=Kyle |date=11 January 2019 |title=A Seattle TV station aired doctored footage of Trump's Oval Office speech. The employee has been fired. |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/01/11/seattle-tv-station-aired-doctored-footage-trumps-oval-office-speech-employee-has-been-fired/ |url-status=live |access-date=11 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415011409/https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/01/11/seattle-tv-station-aired-doctored-footage-trumps-oval-office-speech-employee-has-been-fired/ |archive-date=15 April 2019}}</ref> * In June 2019, the United States House Intelligence Committee held hearings on the potential malicious use of deepfakes to sway elections.<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Sullivan |first=Donie |date=4 June 2019 |title=Congress to investigate deepfakes as doctored Pelosi video causes stir |url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/04/politics/house-intelligence-committee-deepfakes-threats-hearing/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629081003/https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/04/politics/house-intelligence-committee-deepfakes-threats-hearing/index.html |archive-date=29 June 2019 |access-date=9 November 2019 |website=CNN}}</ref> * In April 2020, the Belgian branch of Extinction Rebellion published a deepfake video of Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès on Facebook.<ref>{{Cite web |title=#TellTheTruthBelgium |url=https://www.extinctionrebellion.be/en/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425000040/https://www.extinctionrebellion.be/en |archive-date=25 April 2020 |access-date=21 April 2020 |website=Extinction Rebellion Belgium }}</ref> The video promoted a possible link between deforestation and COVID-19. It had more than 100,000 views within 24 hours and received many comments. On the Facebook page where the video appeared, many users interpreted the deepfake video as genuine.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Holubowicz |first=Gerald |date=15 April 2020 |title=Extinction Rebellion s'empare des deepfakes |url=https://journalism.design/les-deepfakes/extinction-rebellion-sempare-des-deepfakes/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729050900/https://journalism.design/les-deepfakes/extinction-rebellion-sempare-des-deepfakes/ |archive-date=29 July 2020 |access-date=21 April 2020 |website=Journalism.design |language=fr}}</ref> * During the 2020 US presidential campaign, many deepfakes surfaced purporting Joe Biden in cognitive decline—falling asleep during an interview, getting lost, and misspeaking—all bolstering rumors of his decline.<ref name="Carnahan 2020">{{cite web |last=Carnahan |first=Dustin |title=Faked videos shore up false beliefs about Biden's mental health |website=The Conversation |date=16 September 2020 |url=http://theconversation.com/faked-videos-shore-up-false-beliefs-about-bidens-mental-health-145975 |access-date=9 April 2022 |archive-date=9 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409163145/https://theconversation.com/faked-videos-shore-up-false-beliefs-about-bidens-mental-health-145975 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Parker 2020">{{cite web |last=Parker |first=Ashley |title=Trump and allies ramp up efforts to spread disinformation and fake news |website=The Independent |date=7 September 2020 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/trump-us-election-fake-news-biden-twitter-deep-fake-videos-b404815.html |url-access=registration |access-date=9 April 2022}}</ref> * During the 2020 Delhi Legislative Assembly election campaign, the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party used similar technology to distribute a version of an English-language campaign advertisement by its leader, Manoj Tiwari, translated into Haryanvi to target Haryana voters. A voiceover was provided by an actor, and AI trained using video of Tiwari speeches was used to lip-sync the video to the new voiceover. A party staff member described it as a "positive" use of deepfake technology, which allowed them to "convincingly approach the target audience even if the candidate didn't speak the language of the voter."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-first-use-of-deepfakes-in-indian-election-by-bjp/|title=We've Just Seen the First Use of Deepfakes in an Indian Election Campaign|last=Christopher|first=Nilesh|date=18 February 2020|website=Vice|access-date=19 February 2020|archive-date=19 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200219153000/https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/jgedjb/the-first-use-of-deepfakes-in-indian-election-by-bjp|url-status=live}}</ref> * In 2020, Bruno Sartori produced deepfakes parodying politicians like Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/1843/2020/04/28/amabie-the-mythical-creature-making-a-coronavirus-comeback |title=Amabie: the mythical creature making a coronavirus comeback |date=28 April 2020 |access-date=3 June 2021 |newspaper=The Economist |issn=0013-0613 |archive-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520200202/https://www.economist.com/1843/2020/04/28/amabie-the-mythical-creature-making-a-coronavirus-comeback |url-status=live }}</ref> * In April 2021, politicians in a number of European countries were approached by pranksters Vovan and Lexus, who are accused by critics of working for the Russian state. They impersonated Leonid Volkov, a Russian opposition politician and chief of staff of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's campaign, allegedly through deepfake technology.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Roth |first1=Andrew |title=European MPs targeted by deepfake video calls imitating Russian opposition |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/22/european-mps-targeted-by-deepfake-video-calls-imitating-russian-opposition |access-date=29 March 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=22 April 2021 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329113114/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/22/european-mps-targeted-by-deepfake-video-calls-imitating-russian-opposition |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Ivanov |first1=Maxim |last2=Rothrock |first2=Kevin |title=Hello, this is Leonid Volkov* Using deepfake video and posing as Navalny's right-hand man, Russian pranksters fool Latvian politicians and journalists into invitation and TV interview |url=https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/04/22/hello-this-is-leonid-volkov |access-date=29 March 2022 |work=Meduza |date=22 April 2021 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329113114/https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/04/22/hello-this-is-leonid-volkov |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Dutch MPs in video conference with deep fake imitation of Navalny's Chief of Staff |url=https://nltimes.nl/2021/04/24/dutch-mps-video-conference-deep-fake-imitation-navalnys-chief-staff |access-date=29 March 2022 |work=nltimes.nl |date=24 April 2021 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610170647/https://nltimes.nl/2021/04/24/dutch-mps-video-conference-deep-fake-imitation-navalnys-chief-staff |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title='Deepfake' Navalny Aide Targets European Lawmakers |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/04/23/deepfake-navalny-aide-targets-european-lawmakers-a73717 |access-date=29 March 2022 |work=The Moscow Times |date=23 April 2021 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329152654/https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/04/23/deepfake-navalny-aide-targets-european-lawmakers-a73717 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, the pair told ''The Verge'' that they did not use deepfakes, and just used a look-alike.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Vincent |first1=James |title='Deepfake' that supposedly fooled European politicians was just a look-alike, say pranksters |url=https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/30/22407264/deepfake-european-polticians-leonid-volkov-vovan-lexus |work=The Verge |date=30 April 2021 |access-date=29 March 2022 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329113114/https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/30/22407264/deepfake-european-polticians-leonid-volkov-vovan-lexus |url-status=live }}</ref> * In May 2023, a deepfake video of Vice President Kamala Harris supposedly slurring her words and speaking nonsensically about today, tomorrow and yesterday went viral on social media.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Novak |first1=Matt |title=Viral Video Of Kamala Harris Speaking Gibberish Is Actually A Deepfake |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/05/08/viral-video-of-kamala-harris-speaking-gibberish-is-deepfake/?sh=723384a270f7 |work=Forbes |date=8 May 2023 |access-date=18 July 2023 |archive-date=18 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230718185437/https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/05/08/viral-video-of-kamala-harris-speaking-gibberish-is-deepfake/?sh=723384a270f7 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=PolitiFact - Kamala Harris wasn't slurring about today, yesterday or tomorrow. This video is altered |url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/may/05/facebook-posts/kamala-harris-wasnt-slurring-about-today-yesterday/ |work=Politifact |access-date=18 July 2023 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172627/https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/may/05/facebook-posts/kamala-harris-wasnt-slurring-about-today-yesterday/ |url-status=live }}</ref> * In June 2023, in the United States, Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign used a deepfake to misrepresent Donald Trump.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shuham |first=Matt |date=8 June 2023 |title=DeSantis Campaign Ad Shows Fake AI Images Of Trump Hugging Fauci |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/desantis-trump-fauci-fake-ai-ad_n_64822436e4b025003edc3c8b |access-date=8 June 2023 |website=HuffPost |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610171226/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/desantis-trump-fauci-fake-ai-ad_n_64822436e4b025003edc3c8b |url-status=live }}</ref> * In November 2023, a deepfake video of the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announcing a plan to ban the political activities of the AfD was uploaded to YouTube by the Zentrum für Politische Schönheit (Center of Political Beauty).<ref>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.17752/guvenlikstrtj.1706990| issn = 1305-4740| volume = 21| issue = 51| pages = 279–297| last1 = GÖRGEN| first1 = Ahmet| last2 = SAYGINER| first2 = Can| title = Deepfake Technology, Media, and National Security: The Case of the German Chancellor's Deepfake Video.| journal = Security Strategies Journal / Güvenlik Stratejileri Dergisi| access-date = 2025-12-03| date = 2025-08-01| url = https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=73f9c920-6d4a-3267-be6e-6ce6242847c9}}</ref> * In March 2024, during India's state assembly elections, deepfake technology was widely employed by political candidates to reach out to voters. Many politicians used AI-generated deepfakes created by startup The Indian Deepfaker, founded by Divyendra Singh Jadoun,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/04/23/ai-deepfake-election-2024-us-india/ |title=AI Deepfakes Pose Major Threat to Elections in US and India |access-date=22 October 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=20 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520200202/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/04/23/ai-deepfake-election-2024-us-india/ |url-status=live }}</ref> to translate their speeches into multiple regional languages, allowing them to engage with diverse linguistic communities across the country. This surge in the use of deepfakes for political campaigns marked a significant shift in electioneering tactics in India.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Christopher |first1=Nilesh |title=Indian Voters Are Being Bombarded With Millions of Deepfakes. Political Candidates Approve |url=https://www.wired.com/story/indian-elections-ai-deepfakes/ |magazine=Wired |date=March 2024 |access-date=20 October 2024 |archive-date=12 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312123000/https://www.wired.com/story/indian-elections-ai-deepfakes/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=What an Indian Deepfaker Tells Us About Global Election Security|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-ai-election-security-deepfakes/ |work=Bloomberg |access-date=20 October 2024 |archive-date=1 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240401123456/https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-ai-election-security-deepfakes/ |url-status=live }}</ref> * In June 2025, Javier Milei's government backed a smear campaign against journalist Mengolini, which was partly based on explicit deepfakes.<ref>{{cite news |title=Argentina's President Joins A.I.-Fueled Smear Campaign Against Journalist|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/world/americas/argentina-president-milei-press-attacks.html |work=New York Times |access-date=3 July 2025 |last1=Politi |first1=Daniel |last2=Alcoba |first2=Natalie |date=2 July 2025 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Julia Mengolini se quebró por una violenta campaña de libertarios a la que se sumó Milei|url=https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/julia-mengolini-se-quebro-por-una-campana-de-libertarios-a-la-que-se-sumo-milei-nid28062025/ |work=La Nación |language=es |access-date=28 June 2025}}</ref> * In July 2025, Donald Trump posted a deepfake on his Truth Social account, depicting former president Barack Obama getting arrested at the White House and put in prison.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Colby |date=21 July 2025 |title=Trump Live Updates: Epstein Fallout Continues as President Urges Base to Move on |url=https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/21/us/trump-news |access-date=21 July 2025 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Margolis |first=Andrea |date=20 July 2025 |title=Trump posts AI-generated video showing Obama getting arrested to 'YMCA' |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-posts-ai-generated-video-showing-obama-getting-arrested-ymca |access-date=21 July 2025 |website=Fox News |language=en-US}}</ref>
=== Pornography === {{main|Deepfake pornography}} In 2017, Deepfake pornography prominently surfaced on the Internet, particularly on Reddit.<ref name="Roettgers-2018">{{Cite news|url=https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/deepfakes-porn-adult-industry-1202705749/|title=Porn Producers Offer to Help Hollywood Take Down Deepfake Videos|last=Roettgers|first=Janko|date=21 February 2018|work=Variety|access-date=28 February 2018|archive-date=10 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190610220204/https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/deepfakes-porn-adult-industry-1202705749/|url-status=live}}</ref> As of 2019, many deepfakes on the internet feature pornography of female celebrities whose likeness is typically used without their consent.<ref name="Dickson-2019">{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/deepfakes-nonconsensual-porn-study-kpop-895605/|title=Deepfake Porn Is Still a Threat, Particularly for K-Pop Stars|last1=Dickson|first1=E. J.|date=7 October 2019|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=30 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030165258/https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/deepfakes-nonconsensual-porn-study-kpop-895605/|url-status=live}}</ref> A report published in October 2019 by Dutch cybersecurity startup Deeptrace estimated that 96% of all deepfakes online were pornographic.<ref name="Ajder-2019">{{Cite web|url=https://regmedia.co.uk/2019/10/08/deepfake_report.pdf|title=The State of Deepfake - Landscape, Threats, and Impact|date=1 October 2019|work=Deeptrace|access-date=7 July 2020|archive-date=9 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809043229/https://regmedia.co.uk/2019/10/08/deepfake_report.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> As of 2018, a Daisy Ridley deepfake first captured attention,<ref name="Roettgers-2018" /> among others.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/deepfakes-explained-the-rise-of-fake-realistic-videos-online-2019-6|title=From porn to 'Game of Thrones': How deepfakes and realistic-looking fake videos hit it big|last=Goggin|first=Benjamin|website=Business Insider|date=7 June 2019 |access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=8 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191108193123/https://www.businessinsider.com/deepfakes-explained-the-rise-of-fake-realistic-videos-online-2019-6|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42912529|title='Fake porn' has serious consequences|last=Lee|first=Dave|date=3 February 2018|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=1 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191201134131/https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42912529|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Cole-2018d">{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/gfycat-spotting-deepfakes-fake-ai-porn/|title=Gfycat's AI Solution for Fighting Deepfakes Isn't Working|last=Cole|first=Samantha|date=19 June 2018|website=Vice|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=8 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191108193129/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywe4qw/gfycat-spotting-deepfakes-fake-ai-porn|url-status=live}}</ref> As of October 2019, most of the deepfake subjects on the internet were British and American actors.<ref name="Dickson-2019" /> However, around a quarter of the subjects are South Korean, the majority of which are K-pop stars.<ref name="Dickson-2019" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@frenizoe/deepfake-porn-efb80f39bae3|title=Deepfake Porn Is Here To Stay|first=Freni|last=Zoe|date=24 November 2019|website=Medium|access-date=10 December 2019|archive-date=10 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210192315/https://medium.com/@frenizoe/deepfake-porn-efb80f39bae3|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{Anchor|DeepNude}}In June 2019, a downloadable Windows and Linux application called DeepNude was released that used neural networks, specifically generative adversarial networks, to remove clothing from images of women. The app had both a paid and unpaid version, the paid version costing $50.<ref name="Cole-2019a">{{cite web |last1=Cole |first1=Samantha |last2=Maiberg |first2=Emanuel |last3=Koebler |first3=Jason |title=This Horrifying App Undresses a Photo of Any Woman with a Single Click |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/deepnude-app-creates-fake-nudes-of-any-woman/ |website=Vice |access-date=2 July 2019 |date=26 June 2019 |archive-date=2 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702011315/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kzm59x/deepnude-app-creates-fake-nudes-of-any-woman |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/github-removed-open-source-versions-of-deepnude-app-deepfakes/ |publisher=Vice Media |title=GitHub Removed Open Source Versions of DeepNude |first=Joseph |last=Cox |date=9 July 2019 |access-date=14 July 2019 |archive-date=24 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924083833/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xzjpk/github-removed-open-source-versions-of-deepnude-app-deepfakes |url-status=live }}</ref> On 27 June the creators removed the application and refunded consumers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://twitter.com/deepnudeapp/status/1144307316231200768|title=pic.twitter.com/8uJKBQTZ0o|date=27 June 2019|access-date=3 August 2019|archive-date=6 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210406183900/https://twitter.com/deepnudeapp/status/1144307316231200768|url-status=live}}</ref>
Female celebrities are often a main target when it comes to deepfake pornography. In 2023, deepfake porn videos appeared online of Emma Watson and Scarlett Johansson in a face swapping app.<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 March 2023 |title=Hundreds of sexual deepfake ads using Emma Watson's face ran on Facebook and Instagram in the last two days |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/emma-watson-deep-fake-scarlett-johansson-face-swap-app-rcna73624 |access-date=8 March 2024 |website=NBC News |archive-date=29 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240229175232/https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/emma-watson-deep-fake-scarlett-johansson-face-swap-app-rcna73624 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2024, deepfake porn images circulated online of Taylor Swift.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Filipovic |first=Jill |date=31 January 2024 |title=Anyone could be a victim of 'deepfakes'. But there's a reason Taylor Swift is a target |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/31/taylor-swift-ai-pictures-far-right |access-date=8 March 2024 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610171111/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/31/taylor-swift-ai-pictures-far-right |url-status=live }}</ref>
Academic studies have reported that women, LGBT people and people of color (particularly activists, politicians and those questioning power) are at higher risk of being targets of promulgation of deepfake pornography.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Paris |first=Britt |date=October 2021 |title=Configuring Fakes: Digitized Bodies, the Politics of Evidence, and Agency |journal=Social Media + Society |volume=7 |issue=4 |article-number=20563051211062919 |doi=10.1177/20563051211062919 |issn=2056-3051|doi-access=free }}</ref> Deepfake technology has become a tool for gender-based harassment and violence, proportionally targeting women and marginalized groups. There is an increasing ethical and equity concerns of intimidation and reputational harm intentions behind this specific media.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lazard |first1=Lisa |last2=Capdevila |first2=Rose |last3=Turley |first3=Emma L |last4=Gilfoyle |first4=Kathryn |last5=Stavropoulou |first5=Nelli |date=2025-11-21 |title=Deepfake Technology and Gender-Based Violence: A Scoping Review |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15248380251384271 |journal=Trauma, Violence, & Abuse |article-number=15248380251384271 |language=en |doi=10.1177/15248380251384271 |pmid=41273018 |issn=1524-8380}}</ref>
=== Social media === Deepfakes have begun to see use in popular social media platforms, notably through Zao, a Chinese deepfake app that allows users to substitute their own faces onto those of characters in scenes from films and television shows such as ''Romeo + Juliet'' and ''Game of Thrones''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2019/09/03/chinese-deepfake-app-zao-goes-viral-faces-immediate-criticism-over-user-data-and-security-policy/|title=Chinese Deepfake App Zao Goes Viral, Faces Immediate Criticism Over User Data And Security Policy|last=Damiani|first=Jesse|website=Forbes|access-date=18 November 2019|archive-date=14 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190914182816/https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2019/09/03/chinese-deepfake-app-zao-goes-viral-faces-immediate-criticism-over-user-data-and-security-policy/|url-status=live}}</ref> The app originally faced scrutiny over its invasive user data and privacy policy, after which the company put out a statement claiming it would revise the policy.<ref name="Porter-2019" /> In January 2020 Facebook announced that it was introducing new measures to counter this on its platforms.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/ahead-of-irish-and-us-elections-facebook-announces-new-measures-against-deepfake-videos-38840513.html|title=Ahead of Irish and US elections, Facebook announces new measures against 'deepfake' videos|website=Independent.ie|date=7 January 2020 |access-date=7 January 2020|archive-date=8 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108144047/https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/ahead-of-irish-and-us-elections-facebook-announces-new-measures-against-deepfake-videos-38840513.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
The Congressional Research Service cited unspecified evidence as showing that foreign intelligence operatives used deepfakes to create social media accounts with the purposes of recruiting individuals with access to classified information.<ref name=CRS1/>
In 2021, realistic deepfake videos of actor Tom Cruise were released on TikTok, which went viral and garnered more than tens of millions of views. The deepfake videos featured an "artificial intelligence-generated doppelganger" of Cruise doing various activities such as teeing off at the golf course, showing off a coin trick, and biting into a lollipop. The creator of the clips, Belgian VFX Artist Chris Umé,<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 March 2021 |title=How Belgian visual expert Chris Ume masterminded Tom Cruise's deepfakes |url=https://www.thestatesman.com/technology/science/belgian-visual-expert-chris-ume-masterminded-tom-cruises-deepfakes-1502955882.html |access-date=24 August 2022 |website=The Statesman |archive-date=24 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824072346/https://www.thestatesman.com/technology/science/belgian-visual-expert-chris-ume-masterminded-tom-cruises-deepfakes-1502955882.html |url-status=live }}</ref> said he first got interested in deepfakes in 2018 and saw the "creative potential" of them.<ref>{{cite news |first=Rachel |last=Metz |title=How a deepfake Tom Cruise on TikTok turned into a very real AI company |work=CNN |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/06/tech/tom-cruise-deepfake-tiktok-company/index.html |access-date=17 March 2022 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172629/https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/06/tech/tom-cruise-deepfake-tiktok-company/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Corcoran |first1=Mark |last2=Henry |first2=Matt |date=23 June 2021 |title=This is not Tom Cruise. That's what has security experts so worried |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-24/tom-cruise-deepfake-chris-ume-security-washington-dc/100234772 |access-date=28 March 2022 |website=ABC News |archive-date=28 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328004537/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-24/tom-cruise-deepfake-chris-ume-security-washington-dc/100234772 |url-status=live }}</ref>
===Sockpuppets=== Deepfake photographs can be used to create sockpuppets, non-existent people, who are active both online and in traditional media. A deepfake photograph appears to have been generated together with a legend for an apparently non-existent person named Oliver Taylor, whose identity was described as a university student in the United Kingdom. The Oliver Taylor persona submitted opinion pieces in several newspapers and was active in online media attacking a British legal academic and his wife, as "terrorist sympathizers". The academic had drawn international attention in 2018 when he commenced a lawsuit in Israel against NSO, a surveillance company, on behalf of people in Mexico who alleged they were victims of NSO's phone hacking technology. ''Reuters'' could find only scant records for Oliver Taylor and "his" university had no records for him. Many experts agreed that the profile photo is a deepfake. Several newspapers have not retracted articles attributed to him or removed them from their websites. It is feared that such techniques are a new battleground in disinformation.<ref>Reuters, 15 July 2020, [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-deepfake-activist-idUSKCN24G15E Deepfake Used to Attack Activist Couple Shows New Disinformation Frontier] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926073638/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-deepfake-activist-idUSKCN24G15E |date=26 September 2020 }}</ref>
==Concerns and countermeasures== Though fake photos have long been plentiful, faking motion pictures has been more difficult, and the presence of deepfakes increases the difficulty of classifying videos as genuine or not.<ref name="Bezmalinovic-2018" /> AI researcher Alex Champandard has said people should know how fast things can be corrupted with deepfake technology, and that the problem is not a technical one, but rather one to be solved by trust in information and journalism.<ref name="Bezmalinovic-2018" /> Computer science associate professor Hao Li of the University of Southern California states that deepfakes created for malicious use, such as fake news, will be even more harmful if nothing is done to spread awareness of deepfake technology.<ref name="Perfect">{{Cite web|url=https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/10/02/deepfake-technology|title=Perfect Deepfake Tech Could Arrive Sooner Than Expected|website=www.wbur.org|date=2 October 2019 |access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=30 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030164611/https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/10/02/deepfake-technology|url-status=live}}</ref> Li predicted that genuine videos and deepfakes would become indistinguishable in as soon as six months, as of October 2019, due to rapid advancement<ref>{{cite web |last1=Vincent |first1=James |title=Deepfakes are becoming more realistic — and harder to detect |url=https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/17/23409637/deepfakes-technology-ai-detection-future |url-status=dead |access-date=13 August 2025 |website=The Verge}}</ref> in artificial intelligence and computer graphics.<ref name="Perfect" /> Former Google fraud czar Shuman Ghosemajumder has called deepfakes an area of "societal concern" and said that they will inevitably evolve to a point at which they can be generated automatically, and an individual could use that technology to produce millions of deepfake videos.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Sonnemaker|first=Tyler|title=As social media platforms brace for the incoming wave of deepfakes, Google's former 'fraud czar' predicts the biggest danger is that deepfakes will eventually become boring|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/google-ex-fraud-czar-danger-of-deepfakes-is-becoming-boring-2020-1|access-date=14 April 2021|website=Business Insider|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414002924/https://www.businessinsider.com/google-ex-fraud-czar-danger-of-deepfakes-is-becoming-boring-2020-1|url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Credibility of information === A primary pitfall is that humanity could fall into an age in which it can no longer be determined whether a medium's content corresponds to the truth.<ref name="Bezmalinovic-2018" /><ref name="Vaccari">{{cite journal |last1=Vaccari |first1=Cristian |last2=Chadwick |first2=Andrew |title=Deepfakes and Disinformation: Exploring the Impact of Synthetic Political Video on Deception, Uncertainty, and Trust in News |journal=Social Media + Society |date=January 2020 |volume=6 |issue=1 |page=205630512090340 |doi=10.1177/2056305120903408 |s2cid=214265502 |issn=2056-3051|doi-access=free }}</ref> Deepfakes are one of a number of tools for disinformation attack, creating doubt, and undermining trust. They have a potential to interfere with democratic functions in societies, such as identifying collective agendas, debating issues, informing decisions, and solving problems through the exercise of political will.<ref name="Pawelec">{{cite journal |last1=Pawelec |first1=M |date=2022 |title=Deepfakes and Democracy (Theory): How Synthetic Audio-Visual Media for Disinformation and Hate Speech Threaten Core Democratic Functions. |journal=Digital Society: Ethics, Socio-legal and Governance of Digital Technology |volume=1 |issue=2 |article-number=19 |doi=10.1007/s44206-022-00010-6 |pmc=9453721 |pmid=36097613}}</ref> People may also start to dismiss real events as fake.<ref name="Deepfakes explained">{{cite web |last1=Somers |first1=Meredith |date=21 July 2020 |title=Deepfakes, explained |url=https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/deepfakes-explained |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240305225527/https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/deepfakes-explained |archive-date=5 March 2024 |access-date=6 March 2024 |website=MIT Sloan}}</ref>
===Defamation=== Deepfakes possess the ability to damage individual entities tremendously.<ref name="Bateman-2020">{{Cite journal|last=Bateman|first=Jon|date=2020|title=Summary|journal=Deepfakes and Synthetic Media in the Financial System|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25783.6|pages=1–2|access-date=28 October 2020|archive-date=20 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420005800/https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25783.6|url-status=live}}</ref> This is because deepfakes are often targeted at one individual, and/or their relations to others in hopes to create a narrative powerful enough to influence public opinion or beliefs. This can be done through deepfake voice phishing, which manipulates audio to create fake phone calls or conversations.<ref name="Bateman-2020" /> Another method of deepfake use is fabricated private remarks, which manipulate media to convey individuals voicing damaging comments.<ref name="Bateman-2020" /> The quality of a negative video or audio does not need to be that high. As long as someone's likeness and actions are recognizable, a deepfake can hurt their reputation.<ref name="Deepfakes explained" />
In September 2020, Microsoft made public that they were developing a Deepfake detection software tool.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kelion |first1=Leo |title=Deepfake detection tool unveiled by Microsoft |work=BBC News |date=September 2020 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53984114 |access-date=15 April 2021 |archive-date=14 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414182803/https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53984114 |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== Detection ===
==== Audio ==== Detecting fake audio is a challenging task that requires careful analysis of the underlying signal to achieve reliable performance. Deep learning approaches have shown that feature design and masking-based augmentation contribute to improved detection.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cohen |first1=Ariel |last2=Rimon |first2=Inbal |last3=Aflalo |first3=Eran |last4=Permuter |first4=Haim H. |title=A study on data augmentation in voice anti-spoofing |journal=Speech Communication |date=June 2022 |volume=141 |pages=56–67 |doi=10.1016/j.specom.2022.04.005|arxiv=2110.10491 |s2cid=239050551 }}</ref> More recently, approaches that integrate trainable feature extractors with strong and diverse audio augmentation strategies have demonstrated improved performance by enabling the model to learn representations that more effectively capture manipulation artifacts.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rimon|first1=Inbal|last2=Gal|first2=Oren|last3=Permuter|first3=Haim|title=Unmasking Deepfakes: Leveraging Augmentations and Features Variability for Deepfake Speech Detection|journal=arXiv preprint|year=2025|arxiv=2501.05545|url=https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.05545}}</ref>
Partial deepfake audio detection, in which only a limited portion of the signal is manipulated, has emerged as a significant challenge in the field. This setting introduces additional complexity beyond conventional detection tasks, as it requires not only identifying the presence of spoofing but also accurately localizing the manipulated regions. Moreover, the need to detect short and often subtle spoofed segments within predominantly genuine audio further increases the difficulty of the problem.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Rimon|first1=Inbal|last2=Gal|first2=Oren|last3=Permuter|first3=Haim|title=Split and Conquer Partial Deepfake Speech|journal=arXiv preprint |year=2026|arxiv=2604.02913|url=https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.02913 }}</ref>
==== Video ==== Most of the academic research surrounding deepfakes focuses on the detection of deepfake videos.<ref name="Manke-2019">{{Cite web |url=https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/06/18/researchers-use-facial-quirks-to-unmask-deepfakes/ |title=Researchers use facial quirks to unmask 'deepfakes' |first=Kara |last=Manke |date=18 June 2019 |website=Berkeley News |access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=9 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109021126/https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/06/18/researchers-use-facial-quirks-to-unmask-deepfakes/|url-status=live}}</ref> One approach to deepfake detection is to use algorithms to recognize patterns and pick up subtle inconsistencies that arise in deepfake videos.<ref name="Manke-2019" /> For example, researchers have developed automatic systems that examine videos for errors such as irregular blinking patterns of lighting.<ref name="Hany">{{cite journal |last1=Farid |first1=Hany |title=Digital Doctoring: How to Tell the Real from the Fake |journal=Significance |date=1 December 2006 |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=162–166 |doi=10.1111/j.1740-9713.2006.00197.x |s2cid=13861938 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Harwell-2019" /> This approach has been criticized because deepfake detection is characterized by a "moving goal post" where the production of deepfakes continues to change and improve as algorithms to detect deepfakes improve.<ref name="Manke-2019" /> In order to assess the most effective algorithms for detecting deepfakes, a coalition of leading technology companies hosted the Deepfake Detection Challenge to accelerate the technology for identifying manipulated content.<ref name="DDCD-2020">{{Cite web |url=https://deepfakedetectionchallenge.ai/ |title=Join the Deepfake Detection Challenge (DFDC) |publisher=deepfakedetectionchallenge.ai |access-date=8 November 2019 |archive-date=12 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200112102819/https://deepfakedetectionchallenge.ai/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The winning model of the Deepfake Detection Challenge was 65% accurate on the holdout set of 4,000 videos.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Deepfake Detection Challenge Results: An open initiative to advance AI |url=https://ai.facebook.com/blog/deepfake-detection-challenge-results-an-open-initiative-to-advance-ai/ |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=ai.facebook.com |archive-date=29 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029023928/https://ai.facebook.com/blog/deepfake-detection-challenge-results-an-open-initiative-to-advance-ai |url-status=live }}</ref> A team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a paper in December 2021 demonstrating that ordinary humans are 69–72% accurate at identifying a random sample of 50 of these videos.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Groh |first1=Matthew |last2=Epstein |first2=Ziv |last3=Firestone |first3=Chaz |last4=Picard |first4=Rosalind |title=Deepfake detection by human crowds, machines, and machine-informed crowds |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|year=2022 |volume=119 |issue=1 |article-number=e2110013119 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2110013119 |doi-access=free |pmid=34969837 |pmc=8740705 |arxiv=2105.06496 |bibcode=2022PNAS..11910013G }}</ref>
Beyond automated detection, viewers can rely on context and perceptual cues to identify deep fake content. Studies have found that viewers can note inconsistencies with body language, facial features, lighting and audio to mouth movement. These are some ways to identify inauthentic content, but these are not always the most reliable ways to determine whether or not the content is real. Evidence suggests that in natural viewing conditions, viewers are not more likely to recognize deep fake videos over authentic videos. Using content warnings has shown mixed results, where the warnings did not improve the accuracy of detection and also resulted in some individuals incorrectly judging videos as deep fake.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lewis |first1=Andrew |last2=Vu |first2=Patrick |last3=Duch |first3=Raymond M. |last4=Chowdhury |first4=Areeq |date=November 2023 |title=Deepfake detection with and without content warnings |journal=Royal Society Open Science |language=en |volume=10 |issue=11 |article-number=231214 |doi=10.1098/rsos.231214 |doi-access=free |pmid=38026025 |pmc=10679876 |bibcode=2023RSOS...1031214L |issn=2054-5703}}</ref>
Another team led by Wael AbdAlmageed with Visual Intelligence and Multimedia Analytics Laboratory (VIMAL) of the Information Sciences Institute at the University Of Southern California developed two generations<ref name="Scholar-search-2022a">{{Cite web |title=Google Scholar |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,39&q=Recurrent+Convolutional+Strategies+for+Face+Manipulation+Detection+in+Videos&btnG= |access-date=30 April 2022 |website=scholar.google.com}}</ref><ref name="Scholar-search-2022b">{{Cite book | title=Two-branch recurrent network for isolating deepfakes in videos | url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=tRGH8FkAAAAJ&citation_for_view=tRGH8FkAAAAJ:nb7KW1ujOQ8C | access-date=30 April 2022 | series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science | date=2020 | doi=10.1007/978-3-030-58571-6_39 | last1=Masi | first1=Iacopo | last2=Killekar | first2=Aditya | last3=Mascarenhas | first3=Royston Marian | last4=Gurudatt | first4=Shenoy Pratik | last5=Abdalmageed | first5=Wael | volume=12352 | pages=667–684 | arxiv=2008.03412 | isbn=978-3-030-58570-9 | archive-date=10 June 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172427/https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=tRGH8FkAAAAJ&citation_for_view=tRGH8FkAAAAJ:nb7KW1ujOQ8C | url-status=live }}</ref> of deepfake detectors based on convolutional neural networks. The first generation<ref name="Scholar-search-2022a" /> used recurrent neural networks to spot spatio-temporal inconsistencies to identify visual artifacts left by the deepfake generation process. The algorithm achieved 96% accuracy on FaceForensics++, the only large-scale deepfake benchmark available at that time. The second generation<ref name="Scholar-search-2022b" /> used end-to-end deep networks to differentiate between artifacts and high-level semantic facial information using two-branch networks. The first branch propagates color information while the other branch suppresses facial content and amplifies low-level frequencies using Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG).
Other techniques suggest that blockchain could be used to verify the source of the media.<ref name="Wired-2019b">{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/story/the-blockchain-solution-to-our-deepfake-problems/ |title=The Blockchain Solution to Our Deepfake Problems |magazine=Wired |access-date=9 November 2019 |issn=1059-1028 |archive-date=7 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191107164023/https://www.wired.com/story/the-blockchain-solution-to-our-deepfake-problems/|url-status=live}}</ref> For instance, a video might have to be verified through the ledger before it is shown on social media platforms.<ref name="Wired-2019b" /> With this technology, only videos from trusted sources would be approved, decreasing the spread of possibly harmful deepfake media.<ref name="Wired-2019b" />
Digitally signing of all video and imagery by cameras and video cameras, including smartphone cameras, was suggested to fight deepfakes.<ref name="Leetaru-2021">{{Cite web|last=Leetaru|first=Kalev|title=Why Digital Signatures Won't Prevent Deep Fakes But Will Help Repressive Governments|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2018/09/09/why-digital-signatures-wont-prevent-deep-fakes-but-will-help-repressive-governments/|access-date=17 February 2021|website=Forbes|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414234733/https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2018/09/09/why-digital-signatures-wont-prevent-deep-fakes-but-will-help-repressive-governments/|url-status=live}}</ref> That allows tracing every photograph or video back to its original owner that can be used to pursue dissidents.<ref name="Leetaru-2021" />
One easy way to uncover deepfake video calls consists in asking the caller to turn sideways.<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 August 2022 |title=To Uncover a Deepfake Video Call, Ask the Caller to Turn Sideways |url=https://metaphysic.ai/to-uncover-a-deepfake-video-call-ask-the-caller-to-turn-sideways/ |access-date=24 August 2022 |website=Metaphysic |archive-date=26 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220826235234/https://metaphysic.ai/to-uncover-a-deepfake-video-call-ask-the-caller-to-turn-sideways/ }}</ref>
=== Deepfake detection and regulation === Legal experts are actively questioning whether current and emerging regulatory frameworks adequately balance the advancements in deepfake detection with the protection of individual rights. Relevant legislation being scrutinized includes the EU AI Act, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Digital Services Act in the European Union, as well as the fragmented state and federal laws in the United States, the Online Safety Act 2023 in the United Kingdom, and China's Administrative Provisions on Deep Synthesis in Internet-Based Information Services (commonly known as the Deep Synthesis Provisions).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Helmus |first1=Todd |title=Artificial Intelligence, Deepfakes, and Disinformation: A Primer |chapter=A Primer |date=2022 |publisher=RAND Corporation |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep42027 |access-date=13 August 2025}}</ref> Scholars are evaluating if these frameworks effectively address the complex interplay between technology, rights, and responsibilities in the context of deepfakes.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Romero-Moreno |first=Felipe |date=23 June 2025 |title=Deepfake detection in generative AI: A legal framework proposal to protect human rights |journal=Computer Law & Security Review |volume=58 |article-number=106162 |doi-access=free |doi=10.1016/j.clsr.2025.106162}}</ref>
===Prevention=== Henry Ajder who works for Deeptrace, a company that detects deepfakes, says there are several ways to protect against deepfakes in the workplace. Semantic passwords or secret questions can be used when holding important conversations. Voice authentication and other biometric security features should be up to date. Educate employees about deepfakes.<ref name="Deepfakes explained" />
=== Media literacy and deepfakes === Due to the capability of deepfakes to fool viewers and believably mimic a person, research has indicated that the concept of truth through observation cannot be fully relied on.<ref name="Karnouskos 138–147">{{Cite journal |last=Karnouskos |first=Stamatis |date=September 2020 |title=Artificial Intelligence in Digital Media: The Era of Deepfakes |journal=IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=138–147 |doi=10.1109/TTS.2020.3001312 |bibcode=2020ITTS....1..138K |issn=2637-6415}}</ref> Additionally, literacy of the technology among populations could be called into question due to the relatively new success of convincing deepfakes.<ref name="Karnouskos 138–147"/> When combined with increasing ease of access to the technology, this has led to the concern amongst some experts that some societies are not prepared to interact with deepfakes organically without potential consequences from sharing misinformation and disinformation.<ref name="Karnouskos 138–147"/> Media literacy has been considered as a potential counter to "prime" a viewer to identify a deepfake when they encounter one organically by engendering critical thinking.<ref name="Karnouskos 138–147"/> While media literacy education can have conflicting results in the overall success in detecting deepfakes,<ref name="ReferenceB">{{Cite journal |last1=Turós |first1=Mátyás |last2=Kenyeres |first2=Attila Zoltán |last3=Szűts |first3=Zoltán |date=September 2024 |title=Fake video detection among secondary school students: The impact of sociocultural, media literacy and media use factors |journal=Telematics and Informatics Reports |language=en |volume=15 |article-number=100160 |doi=10.1016/j.teler.2024.100160|doi-access=free }}</ref> research has indicated that critical thinking and a skeptical outlook toward a presented piece of media are effective at assisting an individual in determining a deepfake.<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ahmed |first=Saifuddin |date=May 2023 |title=Navigating the maze: Deepfakes, cognitive ability, and social media news skepticism |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448211019198 |journal=New Media & Society |language=en |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=1108–1129 |doi=10.1177/14614448211019198 |issn=1461-4448|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Media literacy frameworks promote critical analysis of media and the motivations behind the presentation of the associated content and can reduce vulnerability of disinformation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hwang |first1=Yoori |last2=Ryu |first2=Ji Youn |last3=Jeong |first3=Se-Hoon |date=2021-03-01 |title=Effects of Disinformation Using Deepfake: The Protective Effect of Media Literacy Education |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1089/cyber.2020.0174 |journal=Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking |language=en |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=188–193 |doi=10.1089/cyber.2020.0174 |pmid=33646021 |issn=2152-2715|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Media literacy shows promise as a potential cognitive countermeasure when interacting with malicious deepfakes.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>
===Controversies=== In March 2024, a video clip was released by Buckingham Palace announcing that Kate Middleton had cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy. The appearance of a ring worn by Middleton in the clip fueled rumors that the clip was a deepfake.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/featured/kate-middleton-s-ring-mysteriously-vanishes-raises-more-ai-concerns/ar-BB1ktPZJ |title=Kate Middleton's ring mysteriously vanishes, raises more AI concerns |date=25 March 2024 |publisher=MSN |access-date=19 May 2024 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610171113/https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/featured/kate-middleton-s-ring-mysteriously-vanishes-raises-more-ai-concerns/ar-BB1ktPZJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Johnathan Perkins, UCLA's Director of Race and Equity, doubted Middleton had cancer, and further speculated that she could be in critical condition or dead.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/kates-cancer-admission-is-fake-meghan-markles-fan-and-ucla-director-johnathan-perkins-floats-conspiracy-theory-101712301940262.html |title='Kate's cancer admission is fake', Meghan Markle's fan and UCLA director, Johnathan Perkins, floats conspiracy theory |date=5 April 2024 |author=Hindustan Times |publisher=The Hindustan Times |access-date=19 May 2024 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172633/https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/kates-cancer-admission-is-fake-meghan-markles-fan-and-ucla-director-johnathan-perkins-floats-conspiracy-theory-101712301940262.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== Politics === Recently, the use of deepfakes has inspired research on deepfake's capability and effects when used in disinformation campaigns. This capability has raised concerns, partly due to the potential of deepfakes to circumvent a person's skepticism and influence their views on an issue.<ref name=mh>{{Cite journal |last1=Hameleers |first1=Michael |last2=van der Meer |first2=Toni G. L. A. |last3=Dobber |first3=Tom |date=February 2024 |title=They Would Never Say Anything Like This! Reasons To Doubt Political Deepfakes |journal=European Journal of Communication |language=en |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=56–70 |doi=10.1177/02673231231184703 |issn=0267-3231|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Vaccari"/> Unlike crude misinformation, political propaganda via generative AI often co-opts cultural tropes, visual media, and satire to craft emotionally resonant messages that are difficult to fact-check without losing nuance.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1002/pra2.1279| last = Salubi| first = Oghenere | title = Artificial Intelligence, Misinformation, and Libraries: A New Frontier for Information Professionals| journal = Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology| access-date = 2025-11-04| date = 2025-10-16| volume = 62| pages = 572–581| url = https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pra2.1279| url-access = subscription}}</ref> Due to the continued advancement in technology that improves deceptive capabilities of deepfakes, some scholars believe that deepfakes could pose a significant threat to democratic societies.<ref name=td>{{Cite journal |last1=Dobber |first1=Tom |last2=Metoui |first2=Nadia |last3=Trilling |first3=Damian |last4=Helberger |first4=Natali |last5=de Vreese |first5=Claes |date=January 2021 |title=Do (Microtargeted) Deepfakes Have Real Effects on Political Attitudes? |journal=The International Journal of Press/Politics |language=en |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=69–91 |doi=10.1177/1940161220944364 |issn=1940-1612|doi-access=free }}</ref> Studies have investigated the effects of political deepfakes.<ref name=mh/><ref name=td/><ref name="Vaccari"/> In two separate studies focusing on Dutch participants, it was found that deepfakes have varying effects on an audience. As a tool of disinformation, deepfakes did not necessarily produce stronger reactions or shifts in viewpoints than traditional textual disinformation.<ref name=mh/> However, deepfakes did produce a reassuring effect on individuals who held preconceived notions that aligned with the viewpoint promoted by the deepfake disinformation in the study.<ref name=mh/> Additionally, deepfakes are effective when designed to target a specific demographic segment related to a particular issue.<ref name=td/> "Microtargeting" involves understanding nuanced political issues of a specific demographic to create a targeted deepfake. The targeted deepfake is then used to connect with and influence the viewpoint of that demographic. Targeted deepfakes were found to be notably effective by the researchers.<ref name=td/> Research has also found that the political effects of deepfakes are not necessarily as straightforward or assured. Researchers in the United Kingdom uncovered that deepfake political disinformation does not have a guaranteed effect on populations beyond indications that it may sow distrust or uncertainty in a source that provides the deepfake.<ref name="Vaccari"/> The implications of distrust in sources led researchers to conclude that deepfakes may have outsized effect in a "low-trust" information environment where public institutions are not trusted by the public.<ref name="Vaccari"/>
Across the world, there are key instances where deepfakes have been used to misrepresent well-known politicians and other public figures.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Salvi |first1=Alessandro |last2=Filipova |first2=Raina |last3=Hogeveen |first3=Bryan |last4=Karásková |first4=Ivana |last5=Pawlak |first5=Patryk |last6=Salvi |first6=Andrea |title=THE ATTACK OF THE CLONES: Deepfakes and the evolving landscape of disinformation |date=2024 |publisher=European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) |pages=32–40 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep62147.7 |access-date=13 August 2025}}</ref>
=== Liar's dividend === {{Main|Liar's dividend}}
The liar's dividend is a political and social phenomenon in which, when faced with incriminating or embarrassing authentic video or audio recordings of themselves, individuals will claim that the recordings are AI in order to dismiss the claims and gain sympathy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-08 |title=Deepfakes, Elections, and Shrinking the Liar's Dividend {{!}} Brennan Center for Justice |url=https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/deepfakes-elections-and-shrinking-liars-dividend |access-date=2025-12-10 |website=www.brennancenter.org |language=en}}</ref>
== Example events == [[File:Trump’s arrest (2).jpg|thumb|A fake Midjourney-created image of Donald Trump being arrested<ref name="AP News">{{cite web |url=https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-nypd-stormy-daniels-539393517762 |title=AI-generated images of Trump being arrested circulate on social media |date=21 March 2023 |publisher=AP News |access-date=10 October 2023 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172633/https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-nypd-stormy-daniels-539393517762 |url-status=live }}</ref>]] thumb|Deepfake video: Vladimir Putin warning Americans on election interference and increasing political divide thumb|upright|The fake Midjourney-created image of Pope Francis wearing a puffer jacket
; Barack Obama: On 17 April 2018, American actor Jordan Peele, BuzzFeed, and Monkeypaw Productions posted a deepfake of Barack Obama to YouTube, which depicted Barack Obama cursing and calling Donald Trump names.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fagan |first=Kaylee |title=A viral video that appeared to show Obama calling Trump a 'dips---' shows a disturbing new trend called 'deepfakes' |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/obama-deepfake-video-insulting-trump-2018-4 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922174210/https://www.businessinsider.com/obama-deepfake-video-insulting-trump-2018-4 |archive-date=22 September 2020 |access-date=3 November 2020 |website=Business Insider}}</ref> In this deepfake, Peele's voice and face were transformed and manipulated into those of Obama. The intent of this video was to portray the dangerous consequences and power of deepfakes, and how deepfakes can make anyone say anything. ; Donald Trump: On 5 May 2019, Derpfakes posted a deepfake of Donald Trump to YouTube, based on a skit Jimmy Fallon performed on ''The Tonight Show''.<ref name="Parkin-2019" /> In the original skit (aired 4 May 2016), Jimmy Fallon dressed as Donald Trump and pretended to participate in a phone call with Barack Obama, conversing in a manner that presented him to be bragging about his primary win in Indiana.<ref name="Parkin-2019">{{Cite web|title=The rise of the deepfake and the threat to democracy|url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2019/jun/22/the-rise-of-the-deepfake-and-the-threat-to-democracy|access-date=3 November 2020|website=The Guardian|archive-date=1 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101063543/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2019/jun/22/the-rise-of-the-deepfake-and-the-threat-to-democracy|url-status=live}}</ref> In the deepfake, Jimmy Fallon's face was transformed into Donald Trump's face, with the audio remaining the same. This deepfake video was produced by Derpfakes with a comedic intent. In March 2023, a series of images appeared to show New York Police Department officers restraining Trump.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 March 2023 |title=Trump shares deepfake photo of himself praying as AI images of arrest spread online |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-ai-praying-photo-b2307178.html |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=The Independent |archive-date=28 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528154052/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-ai-praying-photo-b2307178.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The images, created using Midjourney, were initially posted on Twitter by Eliot Higgins but were later re-shared without context, leading some viewers to believe they were real photographs.<ref name="AP News"/> ; Nancy Pelosi: In 2019, a clip from Nancy Pelosi's speech at the Center for American Progress (given on 22 May 2019) in which the video was slowed down, in addition to the pitch of the audio being altered, to make it seem as if she were drunk, was widely distributed on social media. Critics argue that this was not a deepfake, but a {{nowrap|shallowfake{{px2}}{{mdash}}{{px2}}}}a less sophisticated form of video manipulation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Towers-Clark |first=Charles |title=Mona Lisa And Nancy Pelosi: The Implications Of Deepfakes |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestowersclark/2019/05/31/mona-lisa-and-nancy-pelosi-the-implications-of-deepfakes/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123002751/https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestowersclark/2019/05/31/mona-lisa-and-nancy-pelosi-the-implications-of-deepfakes/ |archive-date=23 November 2020 |access-date=7 October 2020 |website=Forbes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=21 April 2020 |title=What Is The Difference Between A Deepfake And Shallowfake? |url=https://deepfakenow.com/what-is-the-difference-between-a-deepfake-and-shallowfake/ |access-date=5 December 2021 |archive-date=26 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626115937/https://deepfakenow.com/what-is-the-difference-between-a-deepfake-and-shallowfake/ }}</ref> ; Mark Zuckerberg: In May 2019, two artists collaborating with the company CannyAI created a deepfake video of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg talking about harvesting and controlling data from billions of people. The video was part of an exhibit to educate the public about the dangers of artificial intelligence.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gallery: 'Spectre' Launches ( Press Release) |url=https://billposters.ch/spectre-launch/ |website=Bill Posters |date=29 May 2019 |access-date=15 May 2024 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610171117/https://billposters.ch/spectre-launch/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Cole |first1=Samantha |title=This Deepfake of Mark Zuckerberg Tests Facebook's Fake Video Policies |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/deepfake-of-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-fake-video-policy/ |work=Vice |date=11 June 2019 |access-date=15 May 2024 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172428/https://www.vice.com/en/article/ywyxex/deepfake-of-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-fake-video-policy |url-status=live }}</ref> ; Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin: On 29 September 2020, deepfakes of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin were uploaded to YouTube, created by a nonpartisan advocacy group RepresentUs.<ref name="Hao-2020">{{Cite web |title=Deepfake Putin is here to warn Americans about their self-inflicted doom |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/29/1009098/ai-deepfake-putin-kim-jong-un-us-election/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030140905/https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/29/1009098/ai-deepfake-putin-kim-jong-un-us-election/ |archive-date=30 October 2020 |access-date=7 October 2020 |website=MIT Technology Review }}</ref> The deepfakes of Kim and Putin were meant to air publicly as commercials to relay the notion that interference by these leaders in US elections would be detrimental to the United States' democracy. The commercials also aimed to shock Americans to realize how fragile democracy is, and how media and news can significantly influence the country's path regardless of credibility.<ref name="Hao-2020" /> However, while the commercials included an ending comment detailing that the footage was not real, they ultimately did not air due to fears and sensitivity regarding how Americans may react.<ref name="Hao-2020" /> On 5 June 2023, an unknown source broadcast a reported deepfake of Vladimir Putin on multiple radio and television networks. In the clip, Putin appears to deliver a speech announcing the invasion of Russia and calling for a general mobilization of the army.<ref name=NYT1>{{cite news |last1=Sonne |first1=Paul |title=Fake Putin Speech Calling for Martial Law Aired in Russia |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/world/europe/putin-deep-fake-speech-hackers.html |access-date=6 June 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=5 June 2023 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172636/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/world/europe/putin-deep-fake-speech-hackers.html |url-status=live }}</ref> ; {{Anchor|Volodymyr Zelenskyy}}Volodymyr Zelenskyy:On 16 March 2022, a one-minute long deepfake video depicting Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy seemingly telling his soldiers to lay down their arms and surrender during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine was circulated on social media.<ref name="Pawelec"/> Russian social media boosted it, but after it was debunked, Facebook and YouTube removed it. Twitter allowed the video in tweets where it was exposed as a fake, but said it would be taken down if posted to deceive people. Hackers inserted the disinformation into a live scrolling-text news crawl on TV station Ukraine 24, and the video appeared briefly on the station's website in addition to false claims that Zelenskyy had fled his country's capital, Kyiv. It was not immediately clear who created the deepfake, to which Zelenskyy responded with his own video, saying, "We don't plan to lay down any arms. Until our victory."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/2022/03/16/1087062648/deepfake-video-zelenskyy-experts-war-manipulation-ukraine-russia | title=Deepfake video of Zelenskyy could be 'tip of the iceberg' in info war, experts warn | publisher=NPR | date=16 March 2022 | access-date=17 March 2022 | author=Allyn, Bobby | archive-date=29 March 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329190821/https://www.npr.org/2022/03/16/1087062648/deepfake-video-zelenskyy-experts-war-manipulation-ukraine-russia | url-status=live }}</ref> ; Wolf News: In late 2022, pro-China propagandists started spreading deepfake videos purporting to be from "Wolf News" that used synthetic actors. The technology was developed by a London company called Synthesia, which markets it as a cheap alternative to live actors for training and HR videos.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Satariano |first1=Adam |last2=Mozur |first2=Paul |title=The People Onscreen Are Fake. The Disinformation Is Real. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/technology/artificial-intelligence-training-deepfake.html |website=The New York Times |date=7 February 2023 |access-date=10 February 2023 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610173139/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/technology/artificial-intelligence-training-deepfake.html |url-status=live }}</ref> ; Pope Francis: In March 2023, an anonymous construction worker from Chicago used Midjourney to create a fake image of Pope Francis in a white Balenciaga puffer jacket. The image went viral, receiving over twenty million views.<ref>{{cite news |title=Pope Francis in Balenciaga deepfake fools millions: 'Definitely scary' |url=https://nypost.com/2023/03/27/pope-francis-in-balenciaga-deepfake-fools-millions-definitely-scary/ |access-date=16 June 2023 |work=New York Post |date=28 March 2023 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610172429/https://nypost.com/2023/03/27/pope-francis-in-balenciaga-deepfake-fools-millions-definitely-scary/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Writer Ryan Broderick dubbed it "the first real mass-level AI misinformation case".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lu |first1=Donna |title=Misinformation, mistakes and the Pope in a puffer: what rapidly evolving AI can – and can't – do |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/01/misinformation-mistakes-and-the-pope-in-a-puffer-what-rapidly-evolving-ai-can-and-cant-do |access-date=16 June 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=31 March 2023 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610171215/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/01/misinformation-mistakes-and-the-pope-in-a-puffer-what-rapidly-evolving-ai-can-and-cant-do |url-status=live }}</ref> Experts consulted by ''Slate'' characterized the image as unsophisticated: "you could have made it on Photoshop five years ago".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Murphy |first1=Heather Tal |title=The Pope in a Coat Is Not From a Holy Place |url=https://slate.com/technology/2023/03/pope-coat-midjourney-puffer-jacket-balenciaga-explained.html |access-date=16 June 2023 |work=Slate |date=29 March 2023 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610173141/https://slate.com/technology/2023/03/pope-coat-midjourney-puffer-jacket-balenciaga-explained.html |url-status=live }}</ref> ; Keir Starmer: In October 2023, a deepfake audio clip of the UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer abusing staffers was released on the first day of a Labour Party conference. The clip purported to be an audio tape of Starmer abusing his staffers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Deepfake audio of Sir Keir Starmer released on first day of Labour conference |url=https://news.sky.com/story/labour-faces-political-attack-after-deepfake-audio-is-posted-of-sir-keir-starmer-12980181 |access-date=29 May 2024 |website=Sky News }}</ref> ; Rashmika Mandanna: In early November 2023, a famous South Indian actor, Rashmika Mandanna fell prey to DeepFake when a morphed video of a famous British-Indian influencer, Zara Patel, with Rashmika's face started to float on social media. Zara Patel claims to not be involved in its creation.<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 November 2023 |title=Woman in deepfake video with Rashmika Mandanna's face breaks silence: I'm deeply disturbed and upset by what is happening |work=The Times of India |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/woman-in-deepfake-video-with-rashmika-mandannas-face-breaks-silence-im-deeply-disturbed-and-upset-by-what-is-happening/articleshow/105047285.cms?from=mdr |access-date=23 November 2023 |issn=0971-8257 |archive-date=23 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231123173646/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/woman-in-deepfake-video-with-rashmika-mandannas-face-breaks-silence-im-deeply-disturbed-and-upset-by-what-is-happening/articleshow/105047285.cms?from=mdr |url-status=live }}</ref> ; Bongbong Marcos: In April 2024, a deepfake video misrepresenting Philippine President Bongbong Marcos was released. It is a slideshow accompanied by a deepfake audio of Marcos purportedly ordering the Armed Forces of the Philippines and special task force to act "however appropriate" should China attack the Philippines. The video was released amidst tensions related to the South China Sea dispute.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cupin |first1=Bea |title=Malacañang flags deepfake audio of Marcos ordering military attack |url=https://www.rappler.com/philippines/malacanang-flags-deepfake-audio-marcos-ordering-military-attack-april-2024/ |access-date=14 May 2024 |work=Rappler |date=24 April 2024 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610173148/https://www.rappler.com/philippines/malacanang-flags-deepfake-audio-marcos-ordering-military-attack-april-2024/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Presidential Communications Office has said that there is no such directive from the president and said a foreign actor might be behind the fabricated media.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Flores |first1=Helen |title='Foreign actor' seen behind President Marcos audio deepfake |url=https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/04/27/2350826/foreign-actor-seen-behind-president-marcos-audio-deepfake |access-date=14 May 2024 |work=The Philippines Star |date=27 April 2024 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610173146/https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/04/27/2350826/foreign-actor-seen-behind-president-marcos-audio-deepfake |url-status=live }}</ref> Criminal charges has been filed by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas in relation to the deepfake media.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Argosino |first1=Faith |title=Raps filed vs social media pages for libelous content, Marcos deepfake |url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1940406/raps-filed-vs-social-media-pages-for-libelous-content-marcos-deepfake |access-date=14 May 2024 |newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer |date=14 May 2024 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610173145/https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1940406/raps-filed-vs-social-media-pages-for-libelous-content-marcos-deepfake |url-status=live }}</ref> On 22 July 2024, a video of Marcos purportedly snorting illegal drugs was released by Claire Contreras, a former supporter of Marcos. Dubbed as the ''polvoron'' video, the media noted its consistency with the insinuation of Marcos' predecessor—Rodrigo Duterte—that Marcos is a drug addict; the video was also shown at a ''Hakbang ng Maisug'' rally organized by people aligned with Duterte.<ref>{{cite news |title=Face-swapped? Deepfake detector flags alleged Marcos video as 'suspicious' |url=https://www.rappler.com/philippines/face-swapped-deepfake-detector-flags-alleged-marcos-video-suspicious/ |access-date=25 July 2024 |work=Rappler |date=23 July 2024}}</ref> Two days later, the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation, based on their own findings, concluded that the video was created using AI; they further pointed out inconsistencies with the person on the video with Marcos, such as details on the two people's ears.<ref>{{cite news |title=NBI, PNP findings show 'polvoron' video fake |url=https://www.philstar.com/nation/2024/07/24/2372498/nbi-pnp-findings-show-polvoron-video-fake |access-date=25 July 2024 |work=The Philippine Star |date=24 July 2024}}</ref> ; Joe Biden: Prior to the 2024 United States presidential election, phone calls imitating the voice of the incumbent Joe Biden were made to dissuade people from voting for him. The person responsible for the calls was charged with voter suppression and impersonating a candidate. The FCC proposed to fine him US$6 million and Lingo Telecom, the company that allegedly relayed the calls, $2 million.<ref>{{cite news |last=Shepardson |first=David |title=US political consultant indicted over AI-generated Biden robocalls |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-political-consultant-indicted-over-ai-generated-biden-robocalls-2024-05-23/ |work=Reuters |date=23 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=US political consultant indicted over AI-generated Biden robocalls |url=https://apnews.com/article/biden-robocalls-ai-new-hampshire-charges-fines-9e9cc63a71eb9c78b9bb0d1ec2aa6e9c |work=AP News |date=23 May 2024 |access-date=8 June 2024 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610173146/https://apnews.com/article/biden-robocalls-ai-new-hampshire-charges-fines-9e9cc63a71eb9c78b9bb0d1ec2aa6e9c |url-status=live }}</ref> ; Arup Group: The firm Arup Group lost $25 million in 2024 from a deepfake scam.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magramo |first=Kathleen |date=17 May 2024 |title=British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25 million deepfake scam victim |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/16/tech/arup-deepfake-scam-loss-hong-kong-intl-hnk/index.html |access-date=18 May 2025 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref> ;Sara Duterte: Philippine Senator Ronald dela Rosa on 14 June 2025 shared a 40-second Deepfake video created via Veo where two students on the street testified on why the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte is selective and politically motivated.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dela Cruz |first1=Ailla |title=Fact Check: Video of students opposing Sara Duterte impeachment is AI-generated |url=https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/fact-check/video-students-oppose-sara-duterte-impeachment-ai-generated/ |access-date=17 June 2025 |work=Rappler |date=16 June 2025}}</ref> Dela Rosa lauded the supposed youth for their opinions. When informed it was an AI video, he says that if that was the case the video creator had a point.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cabato |first1=Luisa |title=Dela Rosa ridiculed over AI video on Sara Duterte impeachment |url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2070901/dela-rosa-ridiculed-over-ai-video-on-sara-duterte-impeachment |access-date=17 June 2025 |newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer |date=16 June 2025 |language=en}}</ref> Duterte herself defended Dela Rosa, insisting that sharing an AI video is not wrong as long as its "not for profit".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Magsambol |first1=Bonz |title=Sara Duterte: Nothing wrong with sharing AI video opposing my impeachment |url=https://www.rappler.com/philippines/sara-duterte-nothing-wrong-sharing-ai-video-opposing-impeachment/ |access-date=17 June 2025 |work=Rappler |date=16 June 2025}}</ref>
;Catherine Connolly: In October 2025, Irish presidential candidate Catherine Connolly condemned an AI-generated deepfake video that mimicked an RTÉ News report and falsely claimed she was withdrawing from the presidential election; her campaign reported the video to the social media platforms it appeared on.<ref>{{cite news |last=Liggett |first=Jake |title='Disgraceful' deep-fake AI video condemned by presidential candidate |work=BBC News NI |date=22 October 2025 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxkn504lqpo |access-date=18 January 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Haeck |first=Pieter |title=Deepfake video of Irish presidential candidate rocks campaign |work=Politico Europe |date=22 October 2025 |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/deepfake-video-of-irish-presidential-candidate-rocks-campaign/ |access-date=18 January 2026}}</ref>
== Responses ==
=== Social media platforms === Chat site Discord took action against deepfake pornography in 2018,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/discord-closes-down-deepfakes-server-ai-celebrity-porn-2018-1|title=Discord just shut down a chat group dedicated to sharing porn videos edited with AI to include celebrities|last=Price|first=Rob|date=27 January 2018|website=Business Insider Australia|access-date=28 November 2019|archive-date=15 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215182904/https://www.businessinsider.com.au/discord-closes-down-deepfakes-server-ai-celebrity-porn-2018-1|url-status=live}}</ref> and has taken a general stance against deepfakes.<ref name="Ghoshal-2018" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/07/twitter-joins-those-banning-deepfake-ai-porn/|title=Twitter bans 'deepfake' AI-generated porn|website=Engadget|date=20 July 2019 |access-date=28 November 2019|archive-date=15 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215182857/https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/07/twitter-joins-those-banning-deepfake-ai-porn/|url-status=live}}</ref> Gfycat began removing all deepfakes from its site on 31 January 2018.<ref name="Cole-2018e">{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/deepfakes-ai-porn-removed-from-gfycat/|title=AI-Generated Fake Porn Makers Have Been Kicked Off Their Favorite Host|last=Cole|first=Samantha|date=31 January 2018|website=Vice|access-date=18 November 2019|archive-date=1 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101165130/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vby5jx/deepfakes-ai-porn-removed-from-gfycat|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Ghoshal-2018">{{Cite web|url=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2018/02/07/twitter-pornhub-and-other-platforms-ban-ai-generated-celebrity-porn/|title=Twitter, Pornhub and other platforms ban AI-generated celebrity porn|last=Ghoshal|first=Abhimanyu|date=7 February 2018|website=The Next Web|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=20 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220061859/https://thenextweb.com/insider/2018/02/07/twitter-pornhub-and-other-platforms-ban-ai-generated-celebrity-porn/|url-status=live}}</ref>
Reddit banned the r/deepfakes subreddit on 7 February 2018, due to the policy violation of "involuntary pornography".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/deepfakes-online-plattformen-wollen-fake-promi-pornos-loeschen-a-1192170.html|title="Deepfakes": Firmen gehen gegen gefälschte Promi-Pornos vor|last=Böhm|first=Markus|date=7 February 2018|work=Spiegel Online|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=23 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923002744/https://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/deepfakes-online-plattformen-wollen-fake-promi-pornos-loeschen-a-1192170.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/7/16982046/reddit-deepfakes-ai-celebrity-face-swap-porn-community-ban|title=Reddit bans 'deepfakes' AI porn communities|last=Robertson|first=Adi|date=7 February 2018|website=The Verge|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=24 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924035821/https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/7/16982046/reddit-deepfakes-ai-celebrity-face-swap-porn-community-ban|url-status=live}}</ref> Also in February 2018, Pornhub said that it would ban deepfake videos on its website because it is considered "non consensual content" which violates their terms of service.<ref name="Cole-2018c">{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/pornhub-bans-deepfakes/|title=Pornhub Is Banning AI-Generated Fake Porn Videos, Says They're Nonconsensual|last=Cole|first=Samantha|date=6 February 2018|website=Vice|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=1 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101165117/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmwvdw/pornhub-bans-deepfakes|url-status=live}}</ref> They had also stated previously that they will take down content flagged as deepfakes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mashable.com/2018/02/02/what-are-deepfakes/|title=A guide to 'deepfakes,' the internet's latest moral crisis|first1=Damon|last1=Beres|first2=Marcus|last2=Gilmer|website=Mashable|date=2 February 2018|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=9 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209201826/https://mashable.com/2018/02/02/what-are-deepfakes/|url-status=live}}</ref> Writers from ''Motherboard'' reported that searching "deepfakes" on Pornhub still returned multiple recent deepfake videos.<ref name="Cole-2018c" />
Google added "involuntary synthetic pornographic imagery" to its ban list in September 2018, allowing anyone to request the block of results showing their fake nudes.<ref name="Fake-porn videos are being weaponized to harass and humiliate women: 'Everybody is a potential target'" /> In May 2022, Google officially changed the terms of service for their Jupyter Notebook colabs, banning the use of their colab service for the purpose of creating deepfakes.<ref>Anderson, Martin (2022). [https://www.unite.ai/google-has-banned-the-training-of-deepfakes-in-colab/ ''Google Has Banned the Training of Deepfakes in Colab''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220530122326/https://www.unite.ai/google-has-banned-the-training-of-deepfakes-in-colab/ |date=30 May 2022 }}, Unite.ai, 28 May 2022</ref> This came a few days after the publication of a ''VICE'' article in which its author, Emanuel Maiberg, reported "Most deepfakes are non-consensual porn", and that the main use of popular deepfake software DeepFaceLab (DFL), "the most important technology powering the vast majority of this generation of deepfakes", which often was used in combination with Google colabs, was to create non-consensual pornography. Maiberg pointed to the fact that among many other well-known examples of third-party DFL implementations – such as deepfakes commissioned by The Walt Disney Company, official music videos, and web series ''Sassy Justice'' by the creators of ''South Park'' and DFL's GitHub page – also linked to deepfake porn website MrDeepFakes, on which members of the DFL Discord server also participate.<ref>Maiberg, Emanuel (2022). [https://www.vice.com/en/article/ethical-deepfakes-deep-tom-cruise-ai-generated-porn/ ''It Takes 2 Clicks to Get From 'Deep Tom Cruise' to Vile Deepfake Porn''], VICE, 17 May 2022</ref>
Facebook has previously stated that they would not remove deepfakes from their platforms.<ref name="Jee-2019">{{Cite web|url=https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613690/facebook-deepfake-zuckerberg-instagram-social-media-election-video/|title=Facebook has promised to leave up a deepfake video of Mark Zuckerberg|website=MIT Technology Review|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=16 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016060800/https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613690/facebook-deepfake-zuckerberg-instagram-social-media-election-video/|url-status=live}}</ref> The videos will instead be flagged as fake by third-parties and then have a lessened priority in user's feeds.<ref name="Cole-2019b">{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/deepfake-of-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-fake-video-policy/|title=This Deepfake of Mark Zuckerberg Tests Facebook's Fake Video Policies|last=Cole|first=Samantha|date=11 June 2019|website=Vice|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=12 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012160019/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywyxex/deepfake-of-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-fake-video-policy|url-status=live}}</ref> This response was prompted in June 2019 after a deepfake featuring a 2016 video of Mark Zuckerberg circulated on Facebook and Instagram.<ref name="Jee-2019" /> Subsequently, Facebook has taken efforts towards encouraging the creation of deepfakes in order to develop state of the art deepfake detection software. Facebook was the prominent partner in hosting the Deepfake Detection Challenge (DFDC), held December 2019, to 2114 participants who generated more than 35,000 models.<ref name="Ferrer-2020">{{Cite web|title=Deepfake Detection Challenge Results: An open initiative to advance AI|url=https://ai.facebook.com/blog/deepfake-detection-challenge-results-an-open-initiative-to-advance-ai/|access-date=7 October 2020|website=ai.facebook.com|archive-date=29 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029023928/https://ai.facebook.com/blog/deepfake-detection-challenge-results-an-open-initiative-to-advance-ai|url-status=live}}</ref> The top performing models with the highest detection accuracy were analyzed for similarities and differences; these findings are areas of interest in further research to improve and refine deepfake detection models.<ref name="Ferrer-2020" /> Facebook has also detailed that the platform will be taking down media generated with artificial intelligence used to alter an individual's speech.<ref name="Paul-2020">{{Cite news|last=Paul|first=Katie|date=4 February 2020|title=Twitter to label deepfakes and other deceptive media|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-security-idUSKBN1ZY2OV|access-date=7 October 2020|archive-date=10 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201010081053/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-security-idUSKBN1ZY2OV|url-status=live}}</ref> However, media that has been edited to alter the order or context of words in one's message would remain on the site but be labeled as false, since it was not generated by artificial intelligence.<ref name="Paul-2020" />
In February 2018, representatives from Twitter (now X) stated that they would suspend accounts suspected of posting non-consensual deepfake content.<ref name="Cole-2018a">{{Cite web |last=Cole |first=Samantha |date=6 February 2018 |title=Twitter Is the Latest Platform to Ban AI-Generated Porn |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/twitter-bans-deepfakes/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101165115/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywqgab/twitter-bans-deepfakes |archive-date=1 November 2019 |access-date=8 November 2019 |website=Vice }}</ref> In 2019, Twitter announced it was seeking public feedback on a prospective policy for its handling of "synthetic and manipulated media".<ref name="blog.twitter-2020">{{Cite web|title=Help us shape our approach to synthetic and manipulated media|url=https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/synthetic_manipulated_media_policy_feedback.html|access-date=7 October 2020|website=blog.twitter.com|archive-date=28 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028211949/https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/synthetic_manipulated_media_policy_feedback.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Under the draft policy, ''TechCrunch'' reported that Twitter "would label and warn, but not always remove, manipulated media".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Twitter drafts a deepfake policy that would label and warn, but not always remove, manipulated media|url=https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/11/twitter-drafts-a-deepfake-policy-that-would-label-and-warn-but-not-remove-manipulated-media/|access-date=7 October 2020|website=TechCrunch|date=11 November 2019 |archive-date=14 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714032908/https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/11/twitter-drafts-a-deepfake-policy-that-would-label-and-warn-but-not-remove-manipulated-media/|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Update inline|date=March 2026|reason=No information on whether policy was actually adopted.}} In August 2024, the secretaries of state of Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan and New Mexico penned an open letter to X owner Elon Musk urging modifications to its AI chatbot Grok's new text-to-video generator, added in August 2024, stating that it had disseminated election misinformation.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/five-us-states-push-musk-fix-ai-chatbot-over-election-misinformation-2024-08-05/ Five US states push Musk to fix AI chatbot over election misinformation] Reuters accessed 19 August 2024.</ref><ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/08/16/elon-musk-grok-ai/ Noxious images spread after Elon Musk launches AI tool with few guardrails] The Washington Post accessed 19 August 2024.</ref><ref>[https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/elon-musk-twitter-misinformation-timeline-1235076786/ How Elon Musk and X Became the Biggest Purveyors of Online Misinformation] Rolling Stone accessed 19 August 2024.</ref>
=== Legislation === In the United States, there have been some responses to the problems posed by deepfakes. In 2018, the Malicious Deep Fake Prohibition Act was introduced to the US Senate;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3805|title=S. 3805–115th Congress (2017-2018): Malicious Deep Fake Prohibition Act of 2018|last=Sasse|first=Ben|date=21 December 2018|website=www.congress.gov|access-date=16 October 2019|archive-date=16 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016053649/https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3805|url-status=live}}</ref> in 2019, the Deepfakes Accountability Act was introduced in the 116th United States Congress by U.S. representative for New York's 9th congressional district Yvette Clarke.<ref name="Clarke-2019">{{Cite web|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3230|title=H.R.3230 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Defending Each and Every Person from False Appearances by Keeping Exploitation Subject to Accountability Act of 2019|last=Clarke|first=Yvette D.|date=28 June 2019|website=www.congress.gov|access-date=16 October 2019|archive-date=17 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191217110329/https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3230|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 2024, over half of documented identity fraud involved AI-created forgeries,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Digital ID Verification Trends 2025 |url=https://www.zyphe.com/resources/blog/2025-trends-in-digital-id-verification-tech |access-date=11 August 2025 |website=www.zyphe.com |date=28 June 2025 |language=en}}</ref> leading several states to introduce legislation regarding deepfakes, including Virginia,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/01/deepfake-revenge-porn-is-now-illegal-in-virginia/|title='Deepfake' revenge porn is now illegal in Virginia|website=TechCrunch|date=July 2019 |access-date=16 October 2019|archive-date=14 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714032913/https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/01/deepfake-revenge-porn-is-now-illegal-in-virginia/|url-status=live}}</ref> Texas, California, and New York;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slate.com/technology/2019/07/congress-deepfake-regulation-230-2020.html|title=Congress Wants to Solve Deepfakes by 2020. That Should Worry Us.|last=Iacono Brown|first=Nina|date=15 July 2019|website=Slate Magazine|access-date=16 October 2019|archive-date=16 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016053644/https://slate.com/technology/2019/07/congress-deepfake-regulation-230-2020.html|url-status=live}}</ref> charges as varied as identity theft, cyberstalking, and revenge porn have been pursued, while more comprehensive statutes are urged.<ref name="Fake-porn videos are being weaponized to harass and humiliate women: 'Everybody is a potential target'">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/30/fake-porn-videos-are-being-weaponized-harass-humiliate-women-everybody-is-potential-target|title=Fake-porn videos are being weaponized to harass and humiliate women: 'Everybody is a potential target'|last=Harrell|first=Drew|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=1 January 2019|archive-date=2 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102031512/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/30/fake-porn-videos-are-being-weaponized-harass-humiliate-women-everybody-is-potential-target/|url-status=live|date=30 December 2018}}</ref>
Among U.S. legislative efforts, on 3 October 2019, California governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bills No. 602 and No. 730.<ref name="AB602">{{Cite web|url=https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB602|title=Bill Text - AB-602 Depiction of individual using digital or electronic technology: sexually explicit material: cause of action.|website=leginfo.legislature.ca.gov|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=17 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191117091545/https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB602|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="AB730">{{Cite web|url=https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB730|title=Bill Text - AB-730 Elections: deceptive audio or visual media.|website=leginfo.legislature.ca.gov|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=31 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031021726/https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB730|url-status=live}}</ref> Assembly Bill No. 602 provides individuals targeted by sexually explicit deepfake content made without their consent with a cause of action against the content's creator.<ref name="AB602" /> Assembly Bill No. 730 prohibits the distribution of malicious deepfake audio or visual media targeting a candidate running for public office within 60 days of their election.<ref name="AB730" /> U.S. representative Yvette Clarke introduced H.R. 5586: Deepfakes Accountability Act into the 118th United States Congress on 20 September 2023 in an effort to protect national security from threats posed by deepfake technology.<ref>[https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/hr5586 H.R. 5586: DEEPFAKES Accountability Act] Govtrack.US accessed 15 August 2024.</ref> U.S. representative María Salazar introduced H.R. 6943: No AI Fraud Act into the 118th United States Congress on 10 January 2024, to establish specific property rights of individual physicality, including voice.<ref>[https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/hr6943 H.R. 6943: No AI FRAUD Act] Govtrack.US accessed 15 August 2024.</ref>
=== Response from DARPA === In 2016, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched the Media Forensics (MediFor) program which was funded through 2020.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hatmaker |first=Taylor |date=1 May 2018 |title=DARPA is funding new tech that can identify manipulated videos and 'deepfakes' |url=https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/30/deepfakes-fake-videos-darpa-sri-international-media-forensics/ |access-date=14 April 2024 |website=TechCrunch |archive-date=8 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208032052/https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/30/deepfakes-fake-videos-darpa-sri-international-media-forensics/ |url-status=live }}</ref> MediFor aimed at automatically spotting digital manipulation in images and videos, including Deepfakes.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hsu |first=Jeremy |date=22 June 2018 |title=Experts Bet on First Deepfakes Political Scandal - IEEE Spectrum |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/experts-bet-on-first-deepfakes-political-scandal |access-date=14 April 2024 |website=IEEE |language= |archive-date=22 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240222112955/https://spectrum.ieee.org/experts-bet-on-first-deepfakes-political-scandal |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Corvey-2020">{{Cite web |title=Media Forensics |url=https://www.darpa.mil/program/media-forensics |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029173807/https://www.darpa.mil/program/media-forensics |archive-date=29 October 2020 |access-date=7 October 2020 |website=www.darpa.mil}}</ref> In the summer of 2018, MediFor held an event where individuals competed to create AI-generated videos, audio, and images as well as automated tools to detect these deepfakes.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The US military is funding an effort to catch deepfakes and other AI trickery|url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/05/23/142770/the-us-military-is-funding-an-effort-to-catch-deepfakes-and-other-ai-trickery/|access-date=7 October 2020|website=MIT Technology Review|archive-date=1 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101063502/https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/05/23/142770/the-us-military-is-funding-an-effort-to-catch-deepfakes-and-other-ai-trickery/|url-status=live}}</ref> According to the MediFor program, it established a framework of three tiers of information—digital integrity, physical integrity and semantic integrity—to generate one integrity score in an effort to enable accurate detection of manipulated media.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Collins |first=Connor |date=11 March 2019 |title=DARPA Tackles Deepfakes With AI |url=https://govciomedia.com/darpa-tackles-deepfakes-with-ai/ |access-date=14 April 2024 |website=GovCIO Media & Research |archive-date=2 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240302173105/http://govciomedia.com/darpa-tackles-deepfakes-with-ai/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
In 2019, DARPA hosted a "proposers day" for the Semantic Forensics (SemaFor) program where researchers were driven to prevent viral spread of AI-manipulated media.<ref name="Corrigan-2019">{{Cite web|title=DARPA Is Taking On the Deepfake Problem|url=https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/08/darpa-taking-deepfake-problem/158980/|access-date=7 October 2020|website=Nextgov.com|date=6 August 2019 |archive-date=28 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028083255/https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/08/darpa-taking-deepfake-problem/158980/|url-status=live}}</ref> DARPA and the Semantic Forensics Program were also working together to detect AI-manipulated media through efforts in training computers to utilize common sense, logical reasoning.<ref name="Corrigan-2019" /> Built on the MediFor's technologies, SemaFor's attribution algorithms infer if digital media originates from a particular organization or individual, while characterization algorithms determine whether media was generated or manipulated for malicious purposes.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sybert |first=Sarah |date=16 September 2021 |title=DARPA Launches New Programs to Detect Falsified Media |url=https://govciomedia.com/darpa-launches-new-programs-to-detect-falsified-media/ |access-date=14 April 2024 |website=GovCIO Media & Research |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610173648/https://govciomedia.com/darpa-launches-new-programs-to-detect-falsified-media/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In March 2024, SemaFor published an analytic catalog that offers the public access to open-source resources developed under SemaFor.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cooper |first=Naomi |date=15 March 2024 |title=DARPA Launches 2 New Efforts to Boost Defenses Against Manipulated Media |url=https://executivegov.com/2024/03/darpa-launches-2-new-efforts-to-boost-defenses-against-manipulated-media/ |access-date=14 April 2024 |archive-date=15 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240315215444/https://executivegov.com/2024/03/darpa-launches-2-new-efforts-to-boost-defenses-against-manipulated-media/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Semantic Forensics - Analytic Catalog |url=https://semanticforensics.com/analytic-catalog |access-date=14 April 2024 |website=semanticforensics.com |archive-date=18 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240418015239/https://semanticforensics.com/analytic-catalog/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== International Panel on the Information Environment ===
The International Panel on the Information Environment was launched in 2023 as a consortium of over 250 scientists working to develop effective countermeasures to deepfakes and other problems created by perverse incentives in organizations disseminating information via the Internet.<ref><!-- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2023) Nobel Prize Summit Fuels Initiatives to Combat Misinformation and Disinformation and Build Trust in Science-->{{cite Q|Q124711722|author=((National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine)) }}</ref>
==See also== {{div-col}} * Artificial intelligence and elections * Artificial intelligence art * Computer facial animation * Dead Internet theory * Digital cloning * Digital face replacement * Facial motion capture * Fake nude photography * Fifth-generation warfare * Generative artificial intelligence * Hyperreality * Identity replacement technology * Interactive online characters * Regulation of artificial intelligence * StyleGAN * Synthetic media * Uncanny valley * Virtual actor {{div-col-end}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * Daniel Immerwahr, "Your Lying Eyes: People now use A.I. to generate fake videos indistinguishable from real ones. How much does it matter?", ''The New Yorker'', 20 November 2023, pp. 54–59. "If by 'deepfakes' we mean realistic videos produced using artificial intelligence that actually deceive people, then they barely exist. The fakes aren't deep, and the deeps aren't fake. [...] A.I.-generated videos are not, in general, operating in our media as counterfeited evidence. Their role better resembles that of cartoons, especially smutty ones." (p. 59.) * Emmanouil Billis, "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381187829 Deepfakes και Ποινικό Δίκαιο [Deepfakes and the Criminal Law<nowiki>]</nowiki>]"(in Greek). In: H. Satzger et al. (eds.), [https://www.sakkoulas.com/product/oria-kai-mellon-tou-poinikou-dikaiou/ The Limits and Future of Criminal Law - Essays in Honor of Christos Mylonopoulos], Athens, P.N. Sakkoulas, 2024, pp. 689–732.
== External links == {{Commons category}} {{Wiktionary|deepfake}} * {{Cite news |first=Ben |last=Sasse |date=19 October 2018 |title=This New Technology Could Send American Politics into a Tailspin |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-real-scary-news-about-deepfakes/2018/10/19/6238c3ce-d176-11e8-83d6-291fcead2ab1_story.html |department=Opinions |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=10 July 2019}} * [https://www.asvspoof.org/ Fake/Spoof Audio Detection Challenge (ASVspoof)] * [https://deepfakedetectionchallenge.ai/ Deepfake Detection Challenge (DFDC)] * [https://deepfakes.virtuality.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Media-Literacy-Bibliography.pdf Bibliography: Media Literacy in the Age of Deepfakes]. Curated by Dr Joshua Glick. * [https://jelesnianski.com/before-you-believe-how-to-recognize-a-deepfake-and-is-it-inherently-evil/ Before you believe – how to recognize a deepfake and is it inherently evil?] *{{cite book |last=Tyagi |first=Vipin |title=Digital Image Forgery Detection: Techniques, Challenges and Applications |series=SpringerBriefs in Computer Science |publisher=Springer Nature Singapore |publication-place=Singapore |date=2026 |isbn=978-981--953003-8 |doi=10.1007/978-981-95-3004-5 |oclc=1547114493}}
{{Generative AI}} {{Media manipulation}}
Category:Deepfakes Category:2018 neologisms Category:Articles containing video clips Category:Generative AI Category:AI safety Category:Internet memes introduced in 2020 Category:2020s fads and trends Category:Media studies Category:Text-to-image generation Category:Text-to-video generation